Fry Your Eggs In This Umami-Rich Ingredient For A Serious Flavor Upgrade

Breakfast as the most important meal of the day may just be clever marketing, but there's something about breakfast food that hits different, even if you eat it for lunch or dinner. However, while fried eggs may be delicious, there are only so many times you can have a simple fried egg before you start to crave something new. But rather than abandoning fried eggs entirely, you have another option: Fry them in tomato paste and olive oil.

If you've never used tomato paste before, it's essentially an extremely concentrated deep red paste made from cooked whole tomatoes. It's a great ingredient for when you want to add a concentrated burst of that signature sweet, acidic, umami tomato flavor to a dish without increasing its moisture content. A little goes a long way, as it's packed to the gills with flavor. As such, it won't compromise the cook on your fried eggs but will enhance them with a potent burst of tomato flavor that blends magnificently into your breakfast.

While you can typically fry eggs in any fat, from ghee to butter and oil, for this particular application, you're going to want to use olive oil. This is because it's the perfect vessel for tomato paste, which seasons the oil — and thus the eggs — with an acidic umami flavor as you fry them.

The method here is pretty simple. First, put about a tablespoon of olive oil into a pan, then add the same amount of tomato paste. Cook the mixture until it starts to caramelize, then crack your eggs directly into it. Spoon the mixture over the top to help it fully infuse the egg all the way through, and the edges will ultimately crisp up, forming a single cohesive whole. The advantage here, as opposed to something like a tomato sauce, is you're not left with a semi-liquid, but a solid fried egg, which you can use however you want. Whether it winds up in a sandwich, ramen, pasta, or even just on top of a piece of toast, the tomato-egg's structural integrity makes it easy.

The combination of eggs and tomatoes is a classic one, appearing in numerous forms in different cultures around the world. Shakshuka is a classic North African egg dish that features eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Tomato and egg stir fries, meanwhile, are common in China. And while some may balk at ketchup on eggs, online surveys have indicated roughly half of Americans go for that combo at least some of the time.

Moreover, tomato paste isn't even the only sauce or sauce-like item you can cook fried eggs in to great effect. The unexpected sauce you should fry eggs in for an elevated breakfast is barbecue, which can lend a rich, sweet, tangy complexity to your morning meal. It makes sense, as barbecue sauce is usually partially ketchup-based, so it fits neatly within the theme of tomatoes and eggs.

Given these existing combos, it doesn't seem at all strange to fry eggs in tomato paste for a concentrated tomato punch to your breakfast. Try it and see for yourself.