Simple, sophisticated breakfast for dinner

There are those nights when breakfast is the only way dinner is going to get on the table.

But that doesn’t doom you to a bowl of cold cereal in front of the television. There are plenty of easy ways to add a dinner-like sophistication – or at least satisfaction – to your breakfast staples. And that was the inspiration for this rich and cheesy take on eggs and toast.

I started with a thick slab of sourdough pan-toasted in butter. If you insist, you could cut the fat by using olive oil cooking spray in the pan instead. Then I added an egg to the pan and a slab of brie to the bread. When the egg was cooked, but the yolk was still a bit runny, I placed it on top of the brie.

And I called it dinner. And it was scrumptious in an almost disturbingly good way.

It got me thinking that this same dish could be recast as a finger food for holiday parties, too. For that, I would roll out a bag of pizza dough as thinly as possible, brush it with some olive oil or melted butter, then pop it in the oven. When it was nearly cooked, pull it out, top it with brie and crack a few eggs on it, then return it to the oven until the eggs are ready.

To serve, use a pizza cutter to slice strips or wedges from the pizza.

Toasty Brie and Egg

1 tablespoon butter

1 thick slice sourdough bread

1 egg

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

1 thick slab brie (about 2 ounces)

1 sprig fresh thyme

In a large skillet over medium-high, melt the butter.

Place the bread in the skillet and toast until the bottom is crispy and just turning golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the bread to toast the other side, pushing it to one side of the pan. Crack the egg into the other side of the pan. Season it with salt and pepper.

About 1 minute before the egg is cooked to desired doneness, place the brie on the bread. Use a spatula to transfer the egg, sunny side up, onto the brie. Cover the skillet and cook for another minute. Serve immediately.

Yield: 1 serving

Approximate nutrition per serving: 639 calories, 33 grams fat (19 grams saturated, 47 percent fat calories), 29 grams protein, 55 grams carbohydrate, 302 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 1,287 milligrams sodium.