This unattributed image posted on You Are the River recently was accompanied by the words “I’m so hungry.” Yeah we are too. It reminds us of the endless possibilities for making fried eggs into a compelling meal any time of day –  breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or a late supper.

Fried eggs are great on just about anything, providing a cheap, satisfying, easy-to-make hit of protein. They’re the reason Sally’s cookbook The Improvisational Cook features Spaghetti with a Fried Egg and Parmigiano Reggiano on the cover  (recipe here). Often finding herself tired, hungry and too crazed to cook, she’s riffed endlessly on the theme. A whole section of The Improvisational Cook is devoted to it, and includes oven-roasted peppers or sweet onions, mashed or hashed potatoes, ratatouille, polenta, warmed over risotto, fried bread, asparagus, spinach, potato chips… As a life strategy, she makes sure she’s got organic eggs on hand when the larder is low.

The best compendium we’ve found on the “fried egg with anything” theme is Hail the Mighty Egg on Leite’s Culinaria. Renee Schettler Rossi rounded up ideas from chefs, cookbook authors and food people across the country, and even includes wine pairings. It’s a great resource to bookmark, provided lots of ideas to jog your imagination.

For a little egg reading, we recommend How Not to Boil an Egg from M.F.K. Fishers The Art of Eating. It begins: Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg until it is broken.

Related posts: fried egg formula for a satisfying breakfast (or lunch or dinner)
 the potato chip improvisations + recipe: real onion dip
sweet or savory cornmeal cakes for breakfast, supper + holiday celebrations (with 2 recipes)
a tin of inspiration: pimenton de la vera (with recipe)