It is the last day of autumn here in the Adelaide Hills and the weather has turned wet, cold, windy and foul. A nice hot breakfast is the order of the morning, and this one has several advantages, it is absolutely packed full of goodness, it is delicious, and it uses up any little bits and pieces of leftovers you might have sitting around.
There, doesn't that look delicious? It was too, it is all gone now.
So, as I can said, this is a good one as you can use up what you have, instead of pumpkin, you can use potato slices, instead of olives you can use sundried tomatoes, instead of pesto you could add a little tapenade or tomato sauce, the world is your breakfast casserole really. Here is what I used this morning.
Ingredients - made enough for one very hearty breakfast - needs one small casserole dish or two ramekins
Enough thin slices of pumpkin to overlap the bottom of the casserole dish
Olive oil
2 thin rounds of onion
3 garlic cloves, sliced coarsely
1/4 red capsicum, sliced
1/2 a jalapeno chilli, sliced
1 small tin of four bean mix, rinsed and drained
1 heaped tablespoon of pesto (I used my carrot top pesto)
4 sicilian olives, halved
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 egg
cheese
As I said, you can use anything here, the trick is to get a cacophony of flavour.
In a small pan heat a little olive oil, fry the pumpkin until tender, arrange it so that it covers the bottom of the casserole dish. Toss the onion and garlic into the hot pan, saute until translucent, do not burn, it will add bitterness to this dish. Toss in the pine nuts, red capsicum and jalapeno, cook for one minute, stirring frequently, lay this out on top of your pumpkin. Scatter over the four bean mix, dot the pesto over it all, scatter on the olives and then lay the tomato in a sort of nest around the edges, break an egg into the middle.
Now cover the lot with grated cheese, I used lactose free, but you can use whatever you have. Into a hot oven (180 degrees C, I have a little sandwich oven I use for small things like this, saves heating my big ovens for tiny things) for about 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and everything is bubbling, transfer to a grill and grill briefly until the cheese is golden and delicious.
Serve in the dish, try to wait long enough that it doesn't burn your mouth. Enjoy, and have a great day. Xxm.