Shift-Change Potatoes & Broken Eggs
Potatoes and eggs for a crowd is the oldest call in the firehouse. Every shift-change breakfast I've ever eaten has been some version of it. Ottolenghi's angle: take two Spanish fried classics, patatas a lo pobre (poor man's potatoes) and huevos rotos (broken eggs), and run them both through the oven on a single sheet pan. No fryer. No babysitting a skillet. No grease across the stovetop. One tray, about an hour, six people fed. On paper, it was built for a firehouse kitchen. Today I found out if it holds up at 0700 or if it just reads well in a cookbook.
Recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi and Verena Lochmuller, Ottolenghi Simple Too — Breakfast Potatoes
Fuel
2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes (sizes vary), unpeeled and thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
2-3 shallots (sizes vary), thinly sliced
1 head garlic, top inch sliced off
4 sprigs fresh oregano (dried is fine if you can’t source fresh; 1¼ to 2 teaspoons should do, know your crowd).
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
⅔ cup / 150 ml olive oil
6 large eggs
1¼ teaspoons fine sea salt, plus a pinch for the eggs
Black pepper, plenty
Tools
Mandoline (with hand guard)
Chef's knife
Large rimmed baking pan, about 11x16 and 1½ inches deep (a half sheet pan works)
Thin metal spatula
Liquid measuring cup
Fork
Tactics
Oven to 400 (375 convection).
Run the potatoes and shallots across the mandoline, about ⅛ inch thick. Use the guard. Knife the peppers into thin strips roughly the same size and about an inch long.
Everything except the eggs goes into the pan: potatoes, peppers, shallots, the whole garlic head, oregano, paprika, olive oil, salt, and a heavy hand of pepper. Toss with your hands until every slice is coated. You can do this in a large bowl, toss to coat, then slide onto the tray. Experience has taught me this is more effective with overall cohesion of flavors.
Bake for 30 minutes. Pull it, flip everything with the spatula, and send it back in for another 30 minutes, flipping once more at the 15-minute mark (for three times total). You're looking for potatoes that are soft and jammy, with the peppers and shallots frizzled at the edges.
Pull the pan. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and fold them through.
Crack the eggs into the measuring cup, add a pinch of salt and some pepper, and hit them with a fork just enough to break the yolks. Do not scramble. Feel free to salt the eggs right after you place the potato mix in the oven. I salted mine 60 minutes before cooking.
Push a few shallow pockets into the potatoes and pour the eggs in. Put back in the oven for 5 minutes or until the eggs are just set. Serve straight from the pan.
MODIFICATIONS: Ran it as written, ingredient for ingredient, step for step, with two additions from experience: salted the eggs early for a more tender set, and gave the potatoes a 3-to-5-minute broiler blast for extra crunch before the eggs went in.
After the Fire Critiques
The potatoes and garlic do the heavy lifting, and the eggs bring the silky finish, but it's the red peppers and shallots that upsell this recipe.
The real balancing act is the pan. Size matters, and this recipe is no exception. Ottolenghi calls for a tray 4 cm deep, roughly 1½ inches, where most standard sheet pans run about 1 inch. Not much of a difference on paper, but you'd be surprised. That lost depth makes the potatoes and the eggs a delicate operation. Go too shallow, and the eggs overcook fast; go too deep, and the potatoes stay underdone in the middle.
Want more crunch on the potatoes? Blast them under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes before the eggs go in, and keep an eye on the shallots; they go from frazzled to charred fast. Then switch the oven back to bake at 400, pour in the eggs, and finish as written.
Lastly, salt your eggs early. It pays off in a more tender texture, better moisture retention, and more even seasoning. Crack and salt them into the measuring cup when the pan first goes into the oven (park the cup in the fridge), or at least 15 minutes before they cook. Serious Eats ran a fun test that backs it up.
Depending on your pan, this one may take some trial and error, but it's worth nailing for an easy, satisfying firehouse breakfast.