Egg

In a largely vegetarian country, eggs take on more importance than they have traditionally in the States. Indians eat eggs in a variety of interesting ways and at all meals. Here they’re hard-cooked, simmered in a spicy tomato sauce, and served as a main course. It’s a great, easy, and inexpensive weeknight dish. Serve with Pilaf (page 513) or another rice preparation.

As long as you are not a person who eats only sweets for breakfast, there is nothing more satisfying than huevos rancheros, the original “breakfast burrito.” Since you finish the dish in the oven, you can prepare all but the eggs ahead of time, which makes it a great brunch dish when you have guests; the recipe is easily doubled or even tripled.

Shirred eggs with a spicy sauce make a great brunch dish. Serve with toast or Arroz a la Mexicana (page 517).

I love baked eggs, so I was delighted to come across this elaborate version, served as an appetizer before a Spanish dinner (I like it at brunch). When it was made for me, it contained small amounts of asparagus and peas, but you could use bits of any vegetable you like; leftovers are the best option. Use both meats, either, or neither; this is essentially a dish that was created to combine eggs with whatever else is on hand.

Perhaps the most commonly seen tapa of all, this is a dish I have loved eating (and making) since I first visited Spain more than twenty years ago. Don’t be put off by the large quantity of olive oil; much of it will be poured off (and will have a lovely taste, so you can use it for sautéing; refrigerate in the meantime).

A wonderful brunch dish, often served for breakfast in Mexico as a way to use up the previous day’s leftovers. But the combination of crunchy tortillas, spicy tomato sauce, and melted cheese is so irresistible you’ll want to make it just for its own sake. If you do not want to fry the tortillas, you can either bake them until quite crisp—this will take 15 minutes or so—or simply substitute unsalted (or lightly salted) corn tortilla chips.

The omelet remains the standby dinner for many accomplished French cooks, and it remains on the menu of many restaurants. Delicious and gorgeous, it’s a bit trickier than a frittata (page 558), but considerably faster, and nonstick pans have made it a lot more reliable. Fresh herbs are a must here; I would say butter is a must also, but I’d rather you made the omelet with olive oil than not at all. Once you learn how to do this, it will become a staple for you, and variations will be second nature. I offer a few to get you started.

Plain vinaigrette is lovely over steamed vegetables (or poached or grilled fish for that matter), but gribiche surpasses it. Just the thought of this bistro classic makes my mouth water. Other vegetables you can prepare this way: any vegetable you can steam and sauce—potatoes, broccoli, and carrots, for example.

It’s no secret that people eat leftover pasta, but this is a time-honored way to turn it into something else. It’s so good that you might find yourself cooking extra pasta just so you have an excuse to make this. As with any other frittata, you can add what you like here. It might be a bit of pancetta or bacon, but it can also be a bit of cooked vegetable or something as simple as minced scallion or parsley.

In pais Vasco—Basque country—many tapas are substantial and filling. This meets that requirement, but it is also quick and simple. I once had it made with chanterelles, which of course produced a sublime version. If you can get them, or other wild mushrooms, the dish will be really special, but it’s quite wonderful with shiitakes. As for an omelet, you can put most anything you want in here; especially good is about a cup of chopped shrimp added just before the eggs. You can serve this on toast or bread, as is often done in tapas bars, or just by itself. It also makes a fine main course for two.

This is special-occasion food for many Chinese, served as part of large meals. The eggs simmer in their special dark liquid, and eager hands reach in to retrieve an egg, peel it, and devour it. The smoky flavor and pretty patterns on the eggs are mysterious looking but easy to create. By all means, make these ahead of time, as you would any hard-cooked eggs.

Unlike common deviled eggs, these, usually served as a tapa, have both texture and more flavor. The shrimp and olives bring a nice saltiness to the dish, which is ideal for a picnic.

Everybody can relate to a sausage-and-pepper submarine sandwich being Italian American, since it is served at every street fair in the Northeast. The use of peppers with sausages is not as prevalent in Italy as it is in the Italian American community here, but this is a delicious dish. Imagine turning it into breakfast, especially on a morning when you have a few extra mouths to feed. The recipe is easy to prepare, because the sausage is taken out of its casings and crumbled into the pan, and everything else is added to it. You just scramble it all together; do not worry about making a perfectly round frittata here.

From what I recall, frittata made with sausage, bread, and eggs was a dish my grandmother in Istria often prepared, whereas the addition of peppers was something more Italian American. It is nonetheless a delicious combination. This recipe makes a great lunch with some salad on the side.

Frittata is the quintessential Italian meal. You can flavor it with anything you have on hand, and one of my favorite ways is adding dollops of fresh ricotta. Ricotta is a by-product of cheesemaking: after the curds for the cheese are drained from the whey, the whey is recooked with the addition of some milk, and soft ricotta curds slowly form. Ricotta is delicious, and Italians use it in just about any dish, from appetizer to pasta to soup to desserts, and, as here, in frittatas as well. The Italian American immigrants continued this tradition of using ricotta, and it can be found in a lot of Italian American kitchens. Since it was also easy to have a couple of chickens on hand in the backyard, we always had some fresh eggs. When there is nothing else in the house except eggs, this is the meal to make.