Frisée Salad with Lardons and Fried Eggs

My family, as I’m sure many do, have a lot of emotional attachments to food. Of all the people in my family, though, my father is the worst when it comes to emotional cravings.

My dad doesn’t really cook, but he knows when something is the way he wants it, and after he’s tasted “the one,” no other version will do.

The foods he wants always seem to be something difficult to get, like a specific pasta from a specific restaurant or my aunt’s version of 1-2-3-4 cake. Or my brownies, when I live in France.

One of those things is this salad, which he gets from a very specific restaurant in New York. I don’t know if my mother ever tried to make it: somehow I doubt it, seeing as she would never have a craving for runny eggs. I, however, am like my father, and when I was trying to come up with a salad I could eat as lunch, I remembered this one. I threw the ingredients together easily and tasted… it was spot on.

I don’t know if my father will ever agree that this salad is as good as the one he gets in New York: it may just be the thrill of the chase that makes him crave it so. All I know is that I now have one more thing to add to my rotation of quick, healthy and tasty lunches.

This salad is my submission to the “No Time to Cook” recipe roundup for March. This roundup is a great idea, offering “simple, nutritious and interesting recipes in under 10-15 minutes.” I love the idea, and I hope you do too. You can submit your recipes any time before the 25th, so put your thinking caps on for something simple and healthy!

Frisée Salad with Lardons and Fried Eggs (serves two)

100 g. lardons or bacon, cut into small dice
4 eggs
bagged winter lettuce or an assortment of winter lettuces like frisée, radicchio, spinach, etc.
olive oil
cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the lardons. Stir occasionally until they have given off grease and darkened, about 3-5 minutes. Remove the lardons to two plates.

Add a touch of olive oil to the pan if necessary. Crack the eggs into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cook until the white is cooked through but the yolk is still liquidy.

While the eggs cook, top each plate of lardons with a few handfuls of greens. Season the greens with salt, pepper, olive oil and cider vinegar to taste. Top each plate with two fried eggs.

When the egg yolks are pierced and mixed with the oil and vinegar, an incredible dressing is formed. There’s a reason my father loves this salad so much.