Author Notes
The writer Sylvia Plath was maybe the first modern woman, a girl of the 1950s and of the future, a serious worker, artist and intellectual who also dressed, entertained and house-kept ferociously. Plath's diaries are full of recipes and notes on cuisine, some of them so detailed you can cook from them. I write a food column cooking from literature at The Paris Review. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/05/cooking-sylvia-plath/ . This recipe for breakfast toast was described by Plath in her diaries. She didn't say just how to do it, so I took guidance from recipes in her favorite cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, which she called "my blessed Rombauer." —Valerie Stivers
Ingredients
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1
medium potato
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1 tablespoon
olive oil
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2-4
slices of bacon, depending on size
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1
clove garlic, minced
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2 cups
cabbage, shredded
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1/4 teaspoon
paprika
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2
slices good-quality sourdough bread
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2
eggs
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salt and pepper to taste
Directions
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Chop the potato into rough slivers, about 1/4 inch thick and precook, either salted and tossed with olive oil in a 400° F oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes until tender.
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While the potato is cooking, fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove bacon and drain off most of the grease, leaving about 2 tbs grease and all of the crunchy brown bits in the pan.
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Turn the heat to medium low, add the garlic, and stir until the raw edge is removed, about 1 minute. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally until it’s wilted. Add cooked potatoes. Toss and season with paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to fry on medium-low heat, 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture is beginning to brown. Set aside.
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Toast the slices of sourdough bread.
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While the bread is toasting, fry two eggs until cooked on both sides but runny in the middle. Season appropriately.
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Assemble the toast, layering on the cabbage-potato mixture, then bacon, then fried egg.
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