Piperrada Vasca

Piperrada is Basque, a slow pan of green peppers, onion, and tomato bound with beaten egg. The pepper is the spine of it, the tomato gives body, and the egg turns the vegetable base into a meal. It isn't a quick scramble with vegetables tipped in at the end. Everything must first cook down until it tastes like one thing.

The method that decides it is simple: don't add the eggs while the vegetables are still wet. Cook the onion and pepper low until soft and sweet, add the tomato, then keep going until a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clean path. Add the eggs too early and they boil in tomato water, turning loose and grainy. Wait, fold them gently, and they stay tender.

If pimiento verde italiano, the thin-skinned green frying pepper, isn't sold where you live, use Cubanelle. A green bell pepper works at a pinch, but it is thicker and a little more bitter, so give it another five to ten minutes. When tomatoes aren't worth buying fresh, use good whole peeled tomatoes from a tin, drained and crushed. The flavour will be deeper and less bright, but the dish remains sound. In the Margin beside this recipe I wrote only, "the egg waits for the pepper." Siempre sale, si lo sigues.