Migas with Peppers & Fried Egg

📝 Ingredients

• 150 g stale bread (country loaf or baguette)
• 4 tbsp water
• 100 g turkey lardons
• 1 red pepper (about 170 g each)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp olive oil (½ for the pepper, 1 for the bread, ½ for the eggs)
• 2 eggs
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Mixing bowl
• Clean tea towel
• Large frying pan
• Small frying pan
• Spatula
• Chopping board

📖 Steps

1. Cut the stale bread into 1.5 cm cubes, crust and all. Put them in the mixing bowl, sprinkle over the water with 1 pinch of salt while tossing, then cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 15 minutes: they should be just moist, not soggy.
2. Meanwhile, deseed the pepper and cut it into thin strips. Peel the garlic cloves and crush them with a sharp blow from the flat of the blade, without chopping them: they will flavour the oil and then be removed.
3. In the large frying pan, heat ½ tbsp oil over a medium heat and brown the lardons for 3 minutes. Add the pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until soft and lightly charred at the edges. Set everything aside on a plate.
4. In the same pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over a medium heat with the garlic for 2 minutes, until it flavours the oil without browning, then remove it. Add the bread cubes and spread them out in a single layer.
5. Fry the bread for 8 to 10 minutes over a medium heat, turning it very often with a spatula, until crisp outside and still soft inside; if it sticks, lower the heat a little. Sprinkle over the smoked paprika 1 minute before the end: any earlier and it would burn and turn bitter.
6. Return the lardons and pepper to the pan, stir for 1 minute to heat everything through and season with pepper. Taste before adding salt, as the lardons are already salty. Keep warm over a very low heat while you cook the eggs.
7. In the small frying pan, heat the remaining ½ tbsp oil over a medium heat and gently crack in the eggs. Cook for 3 minutes, until the white is set and opaque but the yolk still runny, tilting the pan to spoon hot oil over the white.
8. Divide the migas between two plates and top each with a fried egg. Break the yolk at the table so it coats the crisp bread cubes.