This warm egg salad, also known as Panzanella salad is quick and easy to prepare and absolutely delicious with either poached or soft-boiled eggs.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 Minutes

Ingredients:

• Day old French loaf/ciabatta/sourdough, roughly ½ loaf
• Approximately 600g cocktail tomatoes, halved
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 6 tablespoons (90ml) olive oil
• 4 tablespoons (60ml) red wine vinegar
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and roughly chopped (optional)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 6 large fresh eggs
• Handful baby spinach leaves or micro salad greens to serve
• 10g fresh basil leaves, chopped
• Basil pesto to drizzle on eggs (optional)
• Parmesan shavings to garnish.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Tear the bread into chunky pieces, drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and a grinding of black pepper and toss with the tomatoes.
3. Place the bread and tomatoes onto a baking tray,and drizzle over remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 35 minutes until the bread is golden.
4. For the dressing: whisk thevinegar, garlic, capers and lemon juice together.
5. In a large bowl, toss the roast tomatoes and bread with the dressing
6. Poach the eggs to your liking.
7. To serve: Arrange the spinach leaves or micro greens on a platter, scatter the basil leaves on top, layer with the roast tomatoes and croutons, top with poached eggs and drizzle with pesto.
8. Scatter parmesan shavings on top and serve straight away while warm.

Tip: When poaching eggs add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the boiling water. Eggs love vinegar, as it helps to bind the protein in the egg. The same applies to boiled eggs, adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water prevents the shells from cracking.