Breakfast Recipes

Breakfast is where an olive oil has nowhere to hide. There is no sauce, no heat and no long ingredient list — just bread, and whatever you pour on it.

Bread, tomato and olive oil

The Catalan and Tunisian breakfast alike, and the oldest quality test in the Mediterranean. If the oil is dull, this dish is dull.

You need

• Good sourdough or country bread, thickly sliced
• A very ripe tomato, halved
• A clove of garlic, optional
• Extra virgin olive oil, generously
• Flaky salt

Method

Toast the bread until it is properly crisp at the edges. If you want garlic, rub the cut clove once across the hot surface — once, not four times. Rub the cut tomato over the bread so the flesh grates into it and the skin is left in your hand. Pour the oil over in a slow spiral until the bread darkens. Salt, and eat immediately while the toast is still warm.

Use: Intense, for the peppery finish against the sweet tomato.

Olive oil scrambled eggs

Butter makes scrambled eggs rich. Olive oil makes them taste of eggs.

You need

• Three eggs per person
• Two generous tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt, black pepper
• Soft herbs — chives, parsley — if you have them

Method

Beat the eggs lightly, just enough to break them up. Warm the oil in a cold pan over a low heat — low, and be patient. Add the eggs and stir slowly and constantly with a spatula, pulling the setting curds through the liquid. Take the pan off the heat while they still look slightly underdone; they will finish in the residual heat. Season at the end, add a final drizzle of raw oil, and serve.

Use: Smooth, so the oil supports the egg rather than competing with it.

A word on quantity

Most recipes under-specify olive oil because the writer is being polite about fat. If the oil is good, it is the flavour, not the lubricant — measure generously and taste.