Scrambled Eggs with Gruyère, Fried Pita with Olive Tapenade & Tomato Salad

The three elements that made this breakfast come together the way that it did were leftover pita (from the night I made chicken and hummus), leftover olive tapenade (from the night I made 4-hour lamb; the recipe's in that post), and leftover Gruyere (from that cauliflower gratin). The breakthrough moment was when I decided to fry the pita. I learned how to do this when Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook gave me their recipe for a beet salad at their restaurant Animal; instead of croutons, they fry pita. Turns out that's a really wonderful thing to know how to do.

It's as simple as this. Cut a few pitas into quarters:

Heat about an inch of vegetable oil in a large skillet on high heat. After a few minutes, stick the end of a wooden spoon into the oil and if bubbles immediately form around it, you're ready to fry (thanks, Arthur Schwartz, for that trick). Drop in some pita.

After a bit, flip them upside down. They'll be dark brown.

Remove to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle immediately with salt.

Now these things are utterly delicious so you'll want to snack on them. I enjoyed them hot out of the fryer though as they cooled, they became a bit chewy on the inside because I didn't separate the pita into halves. So next time I do this, I think I'll cut the pockets open before cutting into quarters so you're just frying one single pita piece at a time.

To finish this breakfast, make a little salad of cherry tomatoes (sliced in half), chopped red onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar and lots of chopped parsley. Then fry half a sliced onion in a tablespoon of butter until it's brown, add 3 eggs if it's for one; if it's for two, add 6 eggs and salt and pepper. Turn the heat up to high and as the eggs begin to set, stir a few times to form large curds then take immediately off the heat (it'll finish cooking in the residual heat); add a bunch of Grated Gruyère. To plate, spoon some eggs on to the plate, then some salad, then a few fried pita wedges topped with olive tapenade.

Look at that, you made a good breakfast. NOW EAT IT.