Campfire Skillet Turkish Menemen with Peak-Harvest Peppers and Tomatoes

Build your campfire early and let it burn down to a bed of steady orange coals — menemen wants gentle, even heat, not leaping flames. Set a 10-inch cast-iron skillet on a grate about 6 inches above the embers and let it warm for 2 minutes.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 long green Turkish or Anaheim peppers, seeded and sliced thin
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 5 medium ripe farmers-market tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lb), peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (pul biber), plus more for serving
• 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 large farm eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta or beyaz peynir
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 crusty country loaf, torn, for serving

Instructions

1. Build your campfire early and let it burn down to a bed of steady orange coals — menemen wants gentle, even heat, not leaping flames. Set a 10-inch cast-iron skillet on a grate about 6 inches above the embers and let it warm for 2 minutes.
2. Add the olive oil, then the sliced peppers and onion. Cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 6 to 8 minutes until the peppers slump and the onion turns translucent and sweet at the edges.
3. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, Aleppo pepper, paprika, salt and black pepper. Let the mixture bubble for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes collapse into a thick, jammy sauce and the oil separates and pools slightly at the edges.
4. Slide the skillet toward the cooler side of the fire so the sauce is barely simmering. This is the most important step — eggs added over roaring heat will turn rubbery in seconds.
5. Drop in the butter and let it melt into the tomatoes, then pour the beaten eggs over the surface in a slow spiral.
6. Wait 30 seconds without touching them, then fold the eggs through the sauce with three or four slow, wide strokes. Repeat every 20 seconds or so, folding rather than stirring, for about 2 minutes.
7. Pull the skillet off the fire entirely while the eggs still look slightly underdone and glossy — the residual heat of the cast iron will finish them into soft, custardy curds.
8. Scatter the crumbled feta and parsley over the top, dust with a little more Aleppo pepper, and serve straight from the pan with torn bread for scooping.
9. Menemen is Turkey's great campfire breakfast in spirit even when it is cooked on a city stove — a one-pan dish built entirely from whatever the garden or market gave up that morning. In August, when peppers and tomatoes hit their peak and hold real sweetness, the dish needs almost nothing else. Turkish cooks argue endlessly about whether onion belongs in it at all (Aegean cooks often leave it out), and whether the eggs should be broken whole into the sauce or beaten first. Cooked over live fire on a camping trip, the smoke settles into the tomatoes and settles the argument in favor of whatever gets eaten fastest.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 365 kcal
• Protein: 16g
• Fat: 26g
• Carbohydrates: 17g
• Fiber: 4g
• Sugar: 9g
• Sodium: 690mg