Sardina. Located off the west coast of Italy and second largest island in the great salty pond known as the Mediterranean, to Sicily. Known for it’s long living folk who feast off simple meals with bountiful fresh produce grown locally.

Sounds like a great way to start the morning.

This breakfast was made for me recently and adapted from A Sardinian Cookbook by Giovanni Pilu and Roberta Muir. I have to say the Turkish can reclaim their baked eggs and the whoever’s, their eggs benedict*. Me? I’m all Sardinian (even though I’m a bastard breed of Northern Italian and whatever goes into making up Australian).

Ahem, anyways onto the recipe. Quite easy. All you need is pane carasau / pane di musica…not that economical, quick to make or easy to find, so I substituted with split and toasted wholemeal pitas – I used the mini kind – or you can try Lavosh. Layer 4 pieces per serve with a good quality passata, which I used my own by first soaking tomatoes in boiling water (about 1 minute) then peeling and seeding. Roughly chop the flesh and simmer for 20 – 40 mins with a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. More economical if doing in large batches and buying end-of-season, not-quite-perfect tomatoes. Also add shaved parmesan and fresh basil in the layers. If you’re like me and don’t have fresh basil on hand, but have salvaged bunches of basil before it goes off and minced in a food processor and drowned in olive oil and pinch of salt to be stored in the refrigerator, you’re going to be in luck.

Ideally you want to top with a couple of poached eggs since this particular morning I couldn’t poach an egg if my life depended on it. I took the picture above sans poached eggs (but still ate the little rascals anyway).

What makes this simple breakfast so delectable, I reckon is the slathering of tomatoes that are rich in umami…that I-can’t-get-enough-of-it savoury yumminess. I also happens to be filling and uncomplicated. Kinda like how I prefer my men.

*Wikipedia doesn’t know the originator of eggs benedict, therefore subsequently, neither do I.