Baked eggs with piperade and sorrel

By: Mike McEnearney
From: Real Food by Mike
Serves: 4
Photographer: Alan Benson

This is a traditional Basque dish made with lots of different capsicums. It’s fantastic not just with eggs for breakfast, but also as a side for any meat or fish dish. A nice twist is to add a couple of anchovies to the piperade before it goes in the oven, or serve it with a couple of rashers of streaky bacon. If you can’t find sorrel, use baby English spinach and add a squeeze of lemon juice when serving, to replicate the sharp flavour of sorrel.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
200g	brown onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon	salted capers, rinsed and drained well
50g	garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
200ml	extra-virgin olive oil
200g	red capsicums, cut into strips
200g	green capsicums, cut into strips
200g	yellow capsicums, cut into strips
100ml	white wine
200g	cherry tomatoes
1 bunch	basil, leaves torn
1 bunch	flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped
	red-wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, if needed
1 handful	sorrel
4	eggs
	toast, to serve

Method

In a large saucepan over medium heat, sweat the onion, capers and garlic in the oil until translucent. Add the capsicums and wine and cook down slowly for 5 minutes to a glaze. Add the tomatoes and stew slowly over a low heat for 20–30 minutes to form a thick sauce. Add the herbs and remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. If you find the piperade a little sweet, you can acidulate it with red-wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar.
Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Transfer the piperade to a large, heavy-based ovenproof frying pan over medium heat – or divide it between four smaller frying pans for individual portions – and fold through the sorrel. Crack in the eggs and bake until the white is cooked but the yolk is lovely and runny. Serve with some toast.

Medicinal Benefit

Capsicums have plenty of vitamin C antioxidants; these boost the immune system and help neutralise free radicals. They also contain vitamin A, which keeps skin healthy, and potassium, which balances body fluids and helps maintain low blood pressure. Sorrel is rich in iron, essential for ferrying oxygen around the body and keeping the extremities replenished and healthy. Eggs have more health benefits than I can possibly fit on a page: vitamin B2 to help convert food into energy, vitamin B12 for producing red blood cells, vitamin A for good eyesight, and vitamin E for preventing tissue and cellular damage.

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