Beauty of Egg and Bacon

The yolk of an egg is probably the best, and easiest, "sauce" there is (which probably explains why I love Hollandaise and Bearnaise sauces so much). And bacon? I become Homer Simpson at the mere thought of smoky, crisp bacon. Here are some of my favorite non-breakfast meals using this dynamic food duo. They are everything except low calorie.

Cheater Pasta Carbonara:
Boil single serving of dry spaghetti (or capellini or linguine or fettucine) until al dente. Time these next steps so that they can be combined while the pasta is hot.

Cut three or four slices of bacon into small pieces (not too small as they will shrink) and pan-fry to desired crispness (I have a tendency to overcook, which turns them into bacon bits, which also is not bad but the dish is better if you can leave a little chewiness in the bacon pieces). Remove cooked bacon but leave the residual bacon fat in the pan (about 2-3 tablespoons). Add a generous pad of butter on low heat and fry an egg sunny side up.

Combine bacon and egg, including all of the butter and fat left in the pan, with the cooked, drained pasta. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Zest a bit of lemon rind on top and shards of parmesan cheese (the real stuff please). A bit of chopped chives are good too. Break the yolk, mix, and eat!

Salad as an Entree:
Same steps as above for cooking egg* and bacon. In lieu of spaghetti, place them on bed of frisee lettuce. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette. I also like to add chopped chives and/or cubed fresh tomato. A slice of toasted La Brea French Bread (see below) with butter and a glass of sauvignon blanc completes the meal.

*If you want to be more elegant, instead of frying the egg, poach it (3 inches of boiling water in a pan with white vinegar added; break egg into low bubbling water next to side of pan; cook for 3 minutes). Or if you don't want to bother with frying or poaching an egg, you can also boil it and chop it up.

Chef Thomas Keller's Sandwich:
If you rent the DVD of the Adam Sandler/Tea Leoni movie, Spanglish, the directions on how to make this sandwich are one of the special features. The movie was okay, but this sandwich is spectacular. It's basically a BLT with a fried egg but until you taste it, using the busted egg yolk as the sauce to dip the sandwich in as you eat, you won't fully understand how good it really is. I like to use La Brea Bakery French Bread (available, often hot, from Whole Foods, Molly Stone's, and other gourmet grocery stores) sliced into large sandwich size slices. Again fry the egg in the bacon fat leftover in the pan from cooking the bacon. Grill the bread and brush with melted butter if you want extra luxury (but if you use La Brea bread, the bread alone is so chewy and flavorful that just toasting is fine). Assemble sandwich with mayonnaise, cold iceberg lettuce, tomato slices, bacon slices, and slide egg in last. Cut in half and watch the egg yolk drizzle down the side of the sandwich halves. With a handful of Cape Cod potato chips* and a glass of champagne (in the movie, Adam Sandler who is playing a chef, has a beer with this sandwich), this is indeed the "World's Greatest Sandwich."

*This brand was recently discontinued from distribution in San Francisco. So I ordered No Kai Oi brand Maui style potato chips online.