Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

BLT in a Bowl

Basically, it’s everything great about the sandwich but served in a bowl, inverting the normal ratios of a BLT in order to make the lettuce and tomato the feature. Use good cider vinegar—I’m very partial to the oak-barrel aged one we get from Pierre Gingras in Quebec, or the one from Albert Katz out in California.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces sliced bacon (about 4 to 6 slices)
• 1 slice good bread of your choice, preferably a bit stale, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6 ounces good greens, washed, well dried and coarsely chopped (I like mustard greens, but of course any good lettuce will work)
• 1 big or 2 medium or 4 small ripe, in-season tomatoes, cut into ½-inch chunks
• 1 ripe avocado, cubed
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Plenty of freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 eggs

Procedure:

1. 1. Fry the bacon in a skillet over medium heat. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat. Add the bread cubes and stir well. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, until golden brown on all sides.
2. 2. Meanwhile, put the greens in a pair of chilled salad bowls and top with the tomatoes and avocado. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and cider vinegar and toss well.
3. 3. Add white vinegar and two inches of cold water to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and carefully break the eggs directly into the liquid. Cook until the eggs are lightly poached. Turn off the heat and allow the eggs to rest in the warm liquid.
4. 4. Chop the bacon and add it to the salad bowls. Sprinkle with the croutons and remaining bacon fat and toss well. (If there’s not enough bacon fat for your liking, add a glug from your stash or augment it with a good olive oil.)
5. 5. Gently remove the eggs from the pan with a slotted spoon and spoon one over the top of each salad.
6. 6. Option: Drop the egg (figuratively) from the recipe and substitute a handful of blue cheese broken into small bits. I like to put the cheese on the salad before I add the croutons, so that the heat of the hot bread softens the cheese.

Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a side dish

SEE YOU AT CAMP!