Spaghetti For Breakfast

This was Sunday morning's breakfast, a take on the Italian Carbonara. Traditionally the eggs are just scrambled into the hot noodles and cooked that way. I fried the eggs in the bacon drippings and placed them whole on top of the pasta which had been tossed with the cooked bacon and a little cream. It was really luscious, with the yolk making a rich eggy sauce. Unbelievably I had no parmesan cheese-can you imagine a chef's refrigerator without parmesan?-scandalous! Definitely add the cheese if you have it, if not, it is still a most satisfying breakfast.

1/2 pound cooked spaghetti, with a couple tablespoons of the cooking water reserved

4 rashers of bacon, cut into chunks and cooked until crisped, reserve the drippings

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 or 2 sage leaves, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

1/4 cup cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Place the cooked spaghetti in a sauce pan, add a couple tablespoons of pasta cooking water, add the cream.

Add the bacon to the cream.

Saute garlic and sage in the reserved bacon drippings, strain the drippings and return the drippings to the saute pan. Add the cooked garlic and sage to the spaghetti mixture.

Heat the spaghetti until it begins to simmer, turn off the heat and let the noodles steep while cooking the eggs. While the noodles steep they will absorb the cream.

Fry the eggs in the reserved bacon drippings, basting until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny.

Place the pasta in shallow bowls and top with a fried eggs, top with salt, pepper, parsley, and parmesan cheese.

Huevos Rancheros with Mole Coloradito

Here is my personal take on Huevos Rancheros-English translation is Eggs Ranch Style. The Spanish language is so much more poetic. I referenced (meaning :sorta followed) a couple recipes in Rick Bayless's first cookbook "Authentic Mexican-Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico" published in 1987 with his wife Deann Groen Bayless.

I used store bought white corn tortillas, which I toasted in a skillet. I followed two of Rick's recipes for the beans "Brothy Beans" and "Frijoles Refritos" combining them for an outstanding bean mixture that I spread over the toasted tortillas. I fried the eggs on the bottom only and placed them on top of the bean mixture. Boiling hot mole coloradito is ladled over the top of the eggs which cooks the top and finishes the dish.

The Mole was not the sauce reccomended by Rick, he reccomended a Tomato Chile sauce. The Mole Coloradito has all the components of the tomato Chile sauce but more. Toasted garlic, toasted bread, chicken stock, charred tomatoes, and Guajillo chiles-dried and reconstituted in chicken stock. Place all the ingredients in the blender and pulverize. Strain the mixture through a medium sieve into a hot skillet with a little lard and sautee the sauce for a few minutes, thinning with more stock to get the consistency you like. Assemble the tortillas and ladle the hot mole over the top.

This was a pretty simple Mole compared to the dark chocolatey ones. I have never tried to make one of those dark moles-the list of ingredients is daunting. This was a remarkably delicious breakfast with deep flavors.