Turkish Menemen with Soft Eggs, Ripe Tomato, Green Pepper and Pul Biber

Heat the olive oil in a wide shallow pan or small skillet over medium heat. If using onion, soften it gently for 4-5 minutes until translucent.

Ingredients

• Per pan (serves 2):
• 4 large eggs
• 3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes)
• 2 long green Turkish peppers (sivri biber) or 1 green bell pepper, finely sliced
• 1 small onion, finely diced (optional — many cooks leave it out)
• 3 tbsp olive oil (or a mix of olive oil and butter)
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp pul biber (Aleppo/Turkish red pepper flakes), plus more to finish
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and black pepper
• To serve:
• Crusty white bread or simit
• Chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Crumbled beyaz peynir (white cheese), black olives

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide shallow pan or small skillet over medium heat. If using onion, soften it gently for 4-5 minutes until translucent.
2. Add the sliced green peppers and cook 4-5 minutes until they soften and just start to colour at the edges.
3. Stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute, then add the chopped tomatoes, pul biber, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer 8-10 minutes until the tomatoes break down into a thick, jammy sauce and most of the liquid has cooked away.
4. Crack the eggs directly into the pan over the tomato base. The classic Turkish way is NOT to whisk them first — let the whites begin to set, then drag a wooden spoon slowly through so the eggs cook in soft, loose curls that stay marbled with the tomato.
5. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes only, until the eggs are just set but still creamy and barely soft — menemen should never be dry or rubbery. Pull the pan off the heat while it still looks slightly underdone; it will carry on cooking.
6. Scatter generously with chopped parsley and an extra pinch of pul biber, and grind over a little black pepper.
7. Bring the pan straight to the table — menemen is always eaten communally, scooped straight from the pan with torn bread.
8. Serve with crusty bread, crumbled white cheese, black olives and a glass of hot Turkish tea.
9. Menemen is the beloved breakfast of every Turkish kitchen, from the Aegean coast where it likely began (named after the small town of Menemen near Izmir) to the breakfast salonu of Istanbul, where it arrives still bubbling in its own little copper pan. It is the great democratic dish of the Turkish morning — a few eggs, summer-ripe tomatoes and long green peppers transformed in minutes, eaten slowly over endless glasses of tea while the day is decided. The one rule every Turkish grandmother will enforce is this: the eggs stay soft, and you never, ever, add the cheese into the pan — it goes on the side. Eaten with torn bread and good company, menemen is proof that the finest breakfasts are also the simplest.