Beyond Burgers and Bratwurst

Polenta for breakfast? I hadn’t thought of it that way before – I’d always had it for dinner with tomato sauce and parmesan. Nevetheless, Melissa Clark’s article in last week’s New York Times Dining and Wine section (now unfortunately in Times Select, but titled “A Morning Meal Begs to Stay Up Late”) spurred some enthusiasm. While her meal was still of the dinner variety, she was selling it as breakfast for dinner. David will tell you I’m not a breakfast for dinner person (except with my mom’s creamy leek potatoes and an egg with salad) so I decided to just have the breakfast – for breakfast.

It was breaking the fast for my anti-jet-lag diet and beginning a feasting day, so it was perfect: cooked polenta with thick strips of bacon and a sunny-side up egg. I hadn’t had bacon strips since I’d arrived in Germany – the vocabulary word I knew for it was not the right one, and so when I ordered Speck at my butcher shop, they pointed to a slab of pork fat. Apparently, in Radeberg at least, bacon is Räucherfleisch (transl.: smoked meat). I woke up extra early in the morning to prepare the dish, though it only took twenty minutes – just about the same time it takes me to prepare my regular breakfast of cream of wheat. After frying the bacon I removed most of the bacon fat and fried the egg in the same pan (I know, you cholesterol people are saying “Stop! Don’t!” but I just told you, I hardly ever have bacon, so once in a while, this is acceptable procedure). The flavors were amazing. Instead of only topping the polenta with parmesan cheese, I added a good quarter cup to the mixture when it was still on the stove. The people who invented the anti-jet-lag diet had been correct: starting my day with proteins really did give me a lot of energy, and I wasn’t hungry again until lunchtime. It’s the perfect Italian twist to an American breakfast: instead of potatoes with your bacon and eggs, save some time and mix things up a bit to have some corn polenta.

Polenta, Egg, and Bacon Breakfast

4 1/2cups broth or water
1 1/2cups polenta (not quick-cooking), coarse corn meal or corn grits
1 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
1 1-ounce chunk or 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 large eggs
8 (thick) slices of bacon

Boil the water and stir in the polenta and simmer. You don’t have to stir constantly, but Clark cautions against burns from molten polenta bubbles. Stir in butter, pepper, and cheese. In a separate pan fry the bacon until desired crispness, remove the bacon and keep warm in oven. Fry the eggs (in your choice of olive oil, or some of the bacon fat), turn them over as you are walking with the pan to the table. This provides a very slightly cooked top to the egg, but maintains the oozing yellows which will provide a creamy texture to the polenta. Clark suggests serving this with sauteed garlic swiss chard, though spinach would be a good side dish and source of vitamins and minerals as well.

Yield: 4 servings.

*recipe ingredients and instructions adapted from Melissa Clark’s recipe titled “Buttery Polenta with Parmesan and Olive Oil Fried Eggs”