Open-face feta and leek omelette

Morning, noon or night, there's something intensely satisfying about eggs. My appreciation for them started early with boiled eggs, which was a regular breakfast growing up. My dad used to draw elaborate faces on them for us, which we'd take ghoulish delight in decapitating. They were a common childhood dinner too, as the oozy yellow centres of cheese-filled jaffles. These days I most often eat my eggs scrambled - especially if I've got a bit of cream or an extra white or yolk to use up - or lately, fried in a hole cut in a single slice of bread, as per this genius blog post, which cooks both toast and egg simultaneously in a cast-iron skillet. But for a crowd, the best way to cook eggs (other than shakshuka, of course, which is equally effortless and delicious) is an omelette.

I'm not talking about delicate, light, made-to-order numbers that will have you chained to the stovetop in a flipping frenzy most of the morning but one big, vegetable-packed, feta-fied, finished-under-the-grill number to cut in thick wedges and serve with toast. 

Packed with green vegetables and herbs, the salty punch of feta and soft sweetness of tomatoes, this is the sort of egg dish that works at any time of day. Have it with toast for breakfast, as a sandwich filling for lunch or with a glass of wine for dinner. If you have an egg, you are fed. If you have six, so are your friends.

Open-face feta and leek omelette
Adapted from a recipe by Bill Granger, as published in bill's food

It's amazing how far just six eggs gets you in this recipe, which more than generously feeds four people. 
 


2 tablespoons olive oil 
2 leeks, washed and sliced, white part only
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 small zucchini, finely sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
6 eggs, beaten with 2 tablespoons of water
115g (4oz) feta, drained

to serve
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
a few fresh oregano leaves
cherry tomatoes 


Heat the grill to its highest setting. Place a 22cm (9 inch) cast-iron skillet over a medium to high heat. Add the olive oil, leek, salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the herbs and pour the eggs over the top. Crumble the feta over the omlette and cook for 5 minutes. Finish under the grill for another 5 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the oregano and tomatoes and toss them in the hot oil til they just start to soften and split. Season with salt and pepper.

Pile tomatoes on top of omelette, cut into thick wedges, and serve.