Inspired by a Bobby Flay dish, these creamy eggs are scrambled with slow cooked caramelized onion confit and lots of cheese, and piled atop a buttery garlic flatbread.
This past weekend, a visit from a few out of town guests warranted a trip to one of our favorite restaurants in the city: Gato. Gato is owned by food network star and celebrity chef Bobby Flay, so of course everything on the menu is pretty incredible. If you ever get the chance to eat there, definitely do not pass up the octopus, the eggplant, or the potato appetizers. But my absolute, all time favorite menu item is the scrambled eggs, and that’s where the inspiration for this dish comes from.
There are a few aspects of the eggs at Gato that make them so incredible. They’re cooked with romesco sauce and bucheron cheese over low heat until ultra creamy, topped with garlic chili oil and served with grilled toast. I know what you’re thinking – how could scrambled eggs pass as a menu item at the pretty fancy restaurant? But these eggs transcend the simplicity of a breakfast classic with their notes of nuttiness and smoke, and of course their undeniable creaminess, which makes them almost more of a dip or a spread than a breakfast item.
Besides being a staple menu item at Bobby Flay’s restaurant, scrambled eggs were a staple at my house on Saturday and Sunday mornings, as I’m sure they were and still are for most. My dad is like a scrambled egg genius; he has the uncanny ability to take pretty much any combination of ingredients – usually it was whatever was about to go bad, or already had gone bad, in the fridge – and turn them into incredible scrambled eggs. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from him in my own breakfast food cooking, not necessarily using ingredients on the verge of expiration, but using any combination of ingredients I have on hand and somehow making all them work together. That’s exactly what I did with these eggs when I woke up after our night at Gato with an incredible craving for Bobby Flay’s romesco and bucheron creation. I scoured my pantry and fridge and came up with onions, garlic, and two kinds of cheese along with lots of butter cream, and some parsley that is somehow still growing strong from my outdoor plant.
While these eggs are not exactly like those served at Gato, there are of course some very similar flavors. The sweetness and slight smokiness that would have come from the romesco is instead achieved with carmelized onion confit, cooked low and slow for almost thirty minutes, both sweet and also slightly charred from the cast iron skillet. My tangy cheese is a combination of mozzarella and cheddar as apposed of Bobby’s fancy French one, which still brings a sharp cheesy bite and makes the eggs ultra creamy. I wanted to retain the taste of slightly raw garlic as it is in the garlic chili oil on the Gato dish, so I chose to slather my flatbread in butter, heat it up, and then rub the raw garlic clove right on top, melting some of that garlic flavor into the bread without it being overpowering. While they may not be the Gato scrambled eggs, I’d say my onion confit flatbread version is still pretty damn tasty, and makes a perfect breakfast, appetizer, or finger food at your next party.
- 4 large eggs
- 1 large onion
- ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 flat breads or pita
- parsley, chopped, for garnish
- butter
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- Slice onion into thin rings. Cook in olive oil over very low heat until dark brown and caramelized, adding water to pan if necessary, 20-30 minutes.
- Once onions are cooked, scramble eggs with cheese, cream, salt and pepper. Add to pan and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until cooked but still creamy, 5-7 minutes.
- Butter pita or flatbread and toast until slightly browned, 5-7 minutes. Remove and rub raw garlic into bread.
- Top pita with eggs and sprinkle of parsley and serve.
Served with peppers, onions, Cheddar, and pepper Jack cheese, topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, and sour cream.