Poached Eggs on Feta Cheese

Every once in a while, we'll try a recipe that absolutely transports me someplace.  When I took a bite of this, I was transported to a lovely cafe in Greece, overlooking the water with an azure blue sky...  Well, that's probably as close as I'm ever going to get to visiting Greece! 

We kept putting off making this because the recipe called for rosemary foccacia.  Turns out any bread should work just as well since it's not an integral part of the recipe.  And, in fact, we skipped the bread entirely this time.  I made a couple of changes to the recipe and will make yet another when we make this again.  First, I added some browned salami.  That was a great addition.  Second, I sauteed the sage leaves.  Again, a great addition.  The change I'll make next time will be to use less feta cheese.  It rather overpowered and ran ahead of the eggs instead of walking beside them.  Instead of following the recipe, I used a whole slab from Trader Joe's Greek Feta.  The recipe (which is from Food and WIne) said when you broil the feta it will brown and bubble.  Mine did neither.  But, the cheese was still nicely gooey. 

What did we think?  We'll make this again - probably sooner rather than later.  I'll probably take a good, rustic bread and rub slices with some garlic and drizzle with olive oil and broil them then serve the dish on top of the bread.  I may even put the feta on the bread before I broil the cheese


Poached Eggs on Feta Cheese
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Two 3-inch squares of rosemary focaccia, halved horizontally (see notes above)
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing

4 ounces feta cheese, cut into 2 slabs

Aleppo pepper or ancho chile powder, for sprinkling (I used crushed red pepper)
8 small slices salami
4 large eggs

Salt

18 pitted kalamata olives

8 large sage leaves

Directions:

Place the feta cheese in an ovenproof baking dish. 

Sprinkle it with olive oil and crushed red pepper.

Broil it until it's either brown and bubbly or nicely gooey.

While the cheese is broiling, saute the sage leaves in olive oil, flipping them once.  You want them nice and brown and crispy.

Also while the cheese is broiling, saute the slices of salami.  You want them to brown a bit and release a lot of their fat.  Drain them on paper towels.

Last but not least, poach the eggs.

Now, it's time to assemble the dish.

Lay half of the feta on each plate. 

Top each slice of feta with half of the salami.

Then, top the salami with the poached eggs and the crispy sage.   Sprinkle the olives around the plate.