Italian-Inspired Breakfast & Sun-Dried Tomato Pan-Fried Breakfast Potatoes

Simple Pan-Fried Breakfast Potatoes with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Today, I woke up to rainbows scattered across our bedroom, the result of morning light reflecting off of bike spokes. I was in the mood for adventure. And, while I can’t hop on a plane to Italy, I can travel via food. That’s the amazing thing about travel – flavors stay with you long after you’ve left a place. I lay in bed and thought about what I might like to cook, and I plotted out a breakfast with yummy pan-fried breakfast potatoes that would take me back to my little apartment in Italy, when citrus was in season and I ate stracchino cheese with every meal.

One of my favorite parts about my short time living in Italy was the pure quality of ingredients. I loved that I could walk to the piazza in the morning and pick out fresh produce – spring onions from one vendor, blood oranges from another. Romanesco from an elderly man with dirt under his fingernails, who looked like he happily spent every single day in the sun, laughing. Eggs from one woman, a hunk of bread from the baker. And, of course, stracchino cheese.

Left: my favorite breakfast while in Italy: toast with stracchino + sour cherry jam, boiled egg, blood orange. Right: Fava beans, greens, and tomatoes at a street-side produce stall in Italy

I’d walk back to my apartment feeling like I’d won the lottery, and in a sense, I had.

This morning, I woke up slowly and padded out to the kitchen. I realized I had suitable ingredients to make a meal similar to one of my favorite breakfasts while in Italy: toast with jam and cheese, an egg, and a blood orange. Of course, it wasn’t crusty Italian bread with homemade sour cherry jam and stracchino, but homemade sourdough with fig jam and slivers of parmesan was close enough. Simple, nourishing, delicious. I also added in some breakfast potatoes: first boiled, then lightly pan-fried in that delicious, richly-flavored oil that remains in the jar of sun-dried tomatoes once the tomatoes are gone.

In Italy, I loved to spread toast with stracchino cheese, a very fresh, bright, spreadable cheese that can be loosely compared to burrata. The combination of the creamy, tangy cheese with the sweet cherry jam was a delight. I daydream about it often. I love eating this way, with fresh, simple, wholesome ingredients.

While the toast, eggs, and sliced blood orange require little instruction, here are my easy breakfast potatoes that accompanied our travel-inspired breakfast:

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Wild Mushroom + Poblano Sourdough Stuffing (not just for Thanksgiving!)

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