Fried Eggs à la Provençale

Œufs frits à la Provençale (fried eggs with tomato and aubergine) teaches a small, serious lesson: successful frying depends on dry surfaces and steady heat. The aubergine should emerge bronzed and tender rather than oil-heavy, the parsley should crisp, and each egg white should set around a soft, glossy yolk. Before you touch the pan, dry every salted surface completely. Water is the saboteur here.

The original entry needs neither a saucier nor a stock kept simmering; what it quietly assumes is the brigade luxury of several hands frying aubergines, parsley, and eggs at once, then sending the platter out immediately. At home, four portions, one skillet, a wire rack, and a low oven do the same work. The rack and oven are service scaffolding and can go when two cooks share the stove. The thick floured aubergine, raw ripe tomato half, olive-oil-fried egg, and fried parsley are the dish itself, so every one stays exactly where the book put it. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Sequence keeps the crust crisp and the yolks tender: parsley first while the oil is clean, aubergine next, eggs last. The step that matters most is the blotting. If the salted aubergine still glistens with moisture, it isn't ready for flour or oil.