Baked Eggs with white truffle salt and Romesco Sauce

I received a jar of "Sale con Tartufo Bianco" (white truffle salt) as a Christmas present. As the label suggests, this is salt combined with finely ground scraps of white truffles. A little bit goes a long way.

A year or so ago, Katherine made some Romesco Sauce. There was quite a bit left over after she used it. I tried it in some baked eggs and found that the combination was delicious. We froze the remaining Romesco Sauce and I used a bit from time to time until it was all gone. As another Christmas present I received a 6 oz. jar of Romesco Sauce made for Restaurant LuLu in San Francisco. Surprisingly, this is better than Katherine's homemade version.

After experimenting a bit, the following recipe seems to have reached perfection. It serves 2.

Ingredients:

4 eggs that are at room temperature (Let them sit outside the refrigerator for 8 hours if necessary.)

1 strip of thickly cut bacon (Boar's Head or Nieman Ranch brands are particularly good.)

2 oz. heavy cream

Butter at room temperature

Finely ground bread crumbs

White truffle salt

Restaurant LuLu Romesco Sauce (or homemade)

Ground black pepper.

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start a tea kettle of water that will reach boiling temperature in ten minutes or so and then let it simmer until needed.

Fry one strip of bacon. Let it cool on a paper towel to absorb the excess fat. Then mince it finely.

Butter the bottom and inside walls of 4 small (3 1/2 inch) ramekins.

Coat the insides of each ramekin with finely ground bread crumbs.

Put a dollop (3/8 teaspoon) of Romesco Sauce in the center bottom of each ramekin.

Crack the eggs, carefully dropping one into each ramekin trying not to break the yolk.

Pour 1/2 oz. of heavy cream into each ramekin.

Sprinkle one pinch of white truffle salt over the cream in each ramekin.

Sprinkle one quarter of the minced (crumbled) bacon into each ramekin.

Freshly grind some black pepper over each ramekin to taste.

Put the 4 ramekins into a 9 by 14 inch baking dish and set the dish in the oven. Pour boiling water into the dish until the ramekins are about half under water but not floating.

Bake for exactly 16 minutes and remove the ramekins. The whites should be done and the yolk should be firm but not hard. (Ovens vary. Experiment with your oven to determine the perfect time. Once you know what that is, this method produces consistent results.)

Serve immediately.