Mani Kagianas me Syglino (Καγιανάς με Σύγλινο Μάνης)

Kagianas me syglino is Mani's answer to tomato eggs: ripe tomato, softly set eggs, cured pork from the southern Peloponnese, and sfela cheese with its sharp, salty bite. The region is the dish's surname. In Mani, the pork isn't decoration. It gives the pan its first flavor.

Render the syglino before anything else goes in. Let its fat run into the olive oil, then cook the onion, pepper, and tomato in that same pan. That's the whole method that matters. If you add the pork at the end, you still have good eggs, but you don't have the Mani dish.

Use tomatoes worth cooking down, or use good canned ones without shame when the calendar is against you. The eggs should be soft, not dry and scrambled hard. Sfela goes in at the end so it warms into the curds without disappearing. Good olive oil, and patience.

I don't invent it. I find it, I test it, I write it down. This is breakfast, supper, and the sort of small pan that feeds a house quickly without making the dish smaller than it is.