This is the ultimate breakfast-for-dinner dish: bacon, eggs and toast (in the form of buttery crumbs), combined with spaghetti. Comfort food to the highest degree, it’s especially satisfying after a stressful day at school or the office. And all of the ingredients, except for the bacon, are cooked in one skillet.
Most of us fry our bacon in a skillet, but I prefer to lay it out on a rack set into a rimmed and parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet and bake it in the oven. That way the bacon cooks more evenly. Also, it doesn’t curl up and make a greasy mess of the stovetop. Then again, if you insist on making this a true one-pot meal, you can cook the bacon in the skillet before adding any of the other ingredients, and substitute some of the bacon fat left in the pan for the butter in the recipe.
This recipe’s one unconventional technique is cooking the spaghetti in a skillet rather than a big pot of boiling water. Just take heart knowing that both the Spanish and Mexicans use this same technique. First, the pasta is toasted in oil in the skillet. Then the liquid is added and the pasta is simmered until it is al dente. Why bother with this method? Because the pasta picks up more flavor this way.
You add the eggs when the pasta is just about finished. They need to be cooked over medium-low heat, stirred constantly, and pulled off the heat the minute they’re done so they don’t overcook and get tough. The breadcrumbs are the finishing touch; half are mixed into the pasta and eggs, half are sprinkled on top. If you can’t resist the temptation to add some cheese, you can always substitute some Parmesan for the crumbs.