Mostly Eating

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil
2 bell peppers, any colours
1 large onion
1 courgette or carrot
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 can chopped tomatoes
A handful or two spinach leaves or similar
Freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of red chilli flakes
A pinch of sugar
A pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Four free range or organic eggs
Brown rice (I use about 120g dry weight for two people)

Put a pan of water on for your rice or start it cooking in your rice cooker.

Warm the olive oil in a roomy pan (one that has a lid) on a medium heat. Start chopping the vegetables into bite size pieces and add them to the pan as you finish chopping them.  Start with the onions and then the garlic so that they have chance to soften, then add the courgette (or less traditional carrot) and then the peppers. 

Allow the vegetables to cook until the onion has softened a little. Meanwhile roughly chop your spinach into strips but don’t add this yet.

Add the can of tomatoes and the chilli, sugar and salt to pan. Cover with a lid and simmer until the rice is ready.  I aim for around 20 minutes of simmering; traditional pisto is often cooked for many hours but we want to eat dinner tonight and besides, all that simmering that will do the nutritional content of your vegetables no favours. Now is your chance to go and sit down for a bit or play on Twitter or whatever takes your fancy.

When the rice is ready, add the spinach to the tomato sauce and replace the lid to encourage it to wilt quickly.

Once the spinach has wilted, season the sauce with freshly ground pepper to taste.

Flatten the pisto down a bit and make four little evenly spaced dents using a wooden spoon pan. Crack an egg into each dent.  Replace the lid and leave on a medium heat and until the whites of the eggs are visibly cooked but for no longer than this if you want a runny egg (this is where glass pan lids come into their own).

Spoon some rice onto the plate and then top with the pisto and eggs.