This warm salad topped with peppery arugula, salty bacon shards, a creamy-yolked egg and rich gorgonzola cheese is satisfying and easy.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my cooking style and my food preferences. Growing up, food was fuel. It was a means to an end. But over the years, my appreciation for good food developed around the generous tables of friends, family friends, neighbors and extended family. As I eventually learned to cook, I gravitated to good but simple food.
That’s become the mission of Sarah’s Cucina Bella — to share good, simple food for home cooks to eat well too.
This Arugula, Bacon, Egg and Cheese Salad is the epitome of this philosophy. A few simple ingredients come together to create something bold with flavorful and just beautiful. This is the sort of dish that makes you slow down and savor every bite.
The key to this salad is good quality ingredients. Fresh arugula. The best thick-cut bacon you can get your hands on. Good eggs — from a local farm, if possible. Good olive oil. The best gorgonzola cheese you can find. It’s the combination of flavors together with the way the hot bacon and egg interacts with the gorzonola cheese and arugula that makes this spectacular.
Good food doesn’t have to be complicated, after all.
Is this breakfast? Is it lunch? A light dinner perhaps? It could be any of these. This delightful, creamy, rich salad is perfect for any meal.
Arugula, Bacon, Egg and Cheese Salad
This warm salad topped with peppery arugula, salty bacon shards, a creamy-yolked egg and rich gorgonzola cheese is satisfying and easy.
Ingredients
- 4 cups baby arugula
- 4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 12 oz thick cut bacon, cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
Instructions
- On four plates or shallow bowls, divide the arugula (1 cup per plate). Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Set aside.
- In a skillet set over medium heat, cook the bacon pieces until browned on both sides, flipping them to ensure even cooking (I use a fork for this). Divide evenly among the four beds of arugula.
- Now, it's time to cook the eggs in a clean skillet. You have choices:
- Cook the eggs in bacon fat. I love the flavor this imparts the eggs, but it can be harder to keep the eggs from sticking. You'll want to fry the eggs one at a time, each in 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in the skillet set over medium heat.
- Cook the eggs in olive oil. This produces good eggs and usually results in no sticking. You'll want to fry the eggs one at a time, each in 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet set over medium heat.
- Poach the eggs for 4 minutes in gently boiling water. If you are comfortable with poaching, this is a good and clean option.
4. Transfer one cooked egg to each of the four plates. Top each with 2 tablespoons crumbled gorgonzola cheese. Serve/eat immediately.