An eggcellent breakfast idea – poached egg on roast tomato salad

Serves 6

You’ll need: Day-old French loaf, ciabatta bread or sourdough loaf, roughly ½ loaf; approximately 600g cocktail tomatoes, halved; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 6 tablespoons olive oil; 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and roughly chopped (optional); 1 lemon, juiced; 6 large fresh eggs; 10g fresh basil leaves, chopped; handful baby spinach leaves or micro salad greens to serve; parmesan shavings to garnish; basil pesto to drizzle on eggs (optional).

How to:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Tear the bread into chunky pieces, drizzle with two tablespoons olive oil, sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and a grinding of black pepper and toss with the tomatoes.

Place the bread and tomatoes onto a baking tray, and drizzle over the remaining four tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 35 minutes until the bread is golden.

For the dressing: whisk the vinegar, garlic, capers and lemon juice together.

In a large bowl, toss the roast tomatoes and bread with the dressing mixture.

Poach the eggs to your liking.

To serve:  Arrange the spinach leaves or microgreens on a platter, scatter the basil leaves on top, layer with the roast tomatoes and croutons, top with poached eggs and drizzle with pesto.

Scatter parmesan shavings and serve straight away while warm.

Tip: When poaching eggs add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the boiling water. Eggs love vinegar, as it helps to bind the protein in the egg. The same applies to boiled eggs, adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water prevents the shells from cracking.