New potatoes with herbs and fresh garlic went into a large frying pan with plenty of olive oil. When these were cooked, I added a few slivers of jamon serrano. Just before serving up the potatoes, I cracked a couple of home eggs into another frying pan and by the time the potatoes were on the table, the eggs were ready. A tomato and fresh mint salad was the perfect accompaniment to this speedy, casual and delicious lunch I put together one Saturday after shopping.

This is also a meal you could cook for six or eight people, baking the dish in the oven. Simply make a few depressions in the potato mixture and slide in the raw eggs, which will take about eight minutes or so to cook. I love meals like this, so satisfying, so quick to assemble, and so easy on the pocket. Eggs are the answer, of course, a fresh, free-range or organic egg. Don’t forget to check the first digit of the code on the egg: 0 is organic, 1 is free-range, 2 is barn-reared, 3 is battery-reared. Of course, eggs from your gran’s yard will not have a stamp on them.

And quail eggs make very pretty salads, as in my first recipe today – perfect now that the broad bean season is here.

Eggs are not nearly as difficult with wine as is sometimes made out. They are such a fundamental ingredient in every cuisine that the local wine is usually a good match for any dish in which eggs are used. Oeufs en meurette is a speciality of Burgundy in which the eggs are served in a sauce made from the red wine in which they were first poached. It makes a perfect, casual meal, served with a glass of young red Burgundy or Beaujolais.

A wedge of still-warm, freshly-made tortilla is perfect with a generous copita of crisp, cold fino in one of the bars in Jerez, a frittata of fresh vegetables is lovely with a glass of sparkling Prosecco in a Venetian cafe, a rich custardy, eggy sweet eaten in a pasteleria in Lisbon’s Baixa matches perhaps not a port, but a soft, subtle woody Portuguese brandy.

Eggs have a marvellously versatile quality in the kitchen, combining with so many other ingredients, both simple and luxurious. Excellent with staples, such as bread and potatoes, eggs are also very fine when partnered with truffles and, perhaps, best of all, those other eggs, caviar. I once ate eggs fried in extra virgin olive oil, served with a helping of caviar in a Madrid restaurant and have since cooked it at home. Not very easy on the pocket, but a cinch to make.

It is also useful to have on hand ideas for egg dishes which do not rely on soft cooked eggs. For example, chicken or beef hash with chopped hard-boiled eggs, smoked fish kedgeree, oriental noodle and shredded omelette dish and spring vegetable roulade, which is nothing more than an elegant savoury Swiss roll, filled with cream cheese and vegetables... all of these make excellent meals at home for lunch, brunch or supper. Simple one dish meals that require only some fresh ħobża and perhaps some fruit or a salad, to make them into a complete meal.

Quail eggs, broad bean purée and cucumber ribbons

(serves 6)

2 cucumbers
1 kilo broad beans, podded, cooked and skinned
1-2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 cloves garlic – or to taste
1 lemon
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
18 quail eggs

With a potato peeler remove most of the cucumber skin in a thin layer. Halve them lengthways, scoop out and discard the watery core (or use it and the skin to flavour a jug of refreshing cucumber water). Shave the cucumber into long ribbons with the potato peeler and place in a colander with a little salt.

Blend the beans with the oilve oil and garlic. If you wish, the beans will take more olive oil. Grate in some lemon zest and add a splash of juice to taste, together with salt and pepper.

If you want soft-boiled quail eggs put them in boiling water, simmer for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and leave for 30 seconds, then put the pan under a running cold water tap until the eggs are cool enough to handel. Shell them very carefully. Hard-boiled quail eggs are easier to handle... boil them for 2-3 minutes, then proceed as above.

Rinse the cucumber and press dry in paper towels.

To serve, spoon the bean purée onto serving plates. Arrange a nest of cucumber ribbons and place the quail eggs inside.

Cook’s note: If fresh quail eggs are not available, you can use ready- cooked ones available bottled in brine. But even better would be to use freshly-boiled hen eggs.

Chicken hash

(serves 6-8)

1 kg raw boneless chicken, coarsely minced or finely diced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (optional)
3 tbsps olive oil
1 to 2 tsps concentrated tomato puree or sundried tomato paste
dash of Angostura bitters
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 kg firm fleshed, not floury, potatoes
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 or 8 eggs

Brown the meat and onion in half the olive oil. Stir in the tomato puree, the bitters and the Worcestershire sauce. Add about 150 mls water or stock and simmer, partially covered, until the meat is tender and well flavoured. It can, of course, be cooked the day before required since I am sure the dish evolved as a combination of leftovers. The meat can be flavoured with a bay leaf or two or a sprig of thyme or oregano.

Scrub and par-boil the potatoes – again, a task that can be done in advance. Peel when cool enough to handle and dice very small. Fry them in the remaining olive oil and when cooked and nicely browned, combine the meat and potatoes.

Poach, fry or boil eggs and serve with the hash or bake the eggs in the dish of hash in the oven. For an even more fool-proof method, simply serve each portion of hash with a topping of chopped hard-boiled egg, rather like a kedgeree.

Cook’s note: This is also a very good recipe to use for turkey.

Breakfast tortillas with lime and avocado sauce

(serves 2)

4 flour tortillas
1 or 2 chorizo sausages, crumbled or diced
4 spring onions, chopped
1 red and green pepper, grilled or roasted and skinned and cut into strips
4 eggs, beaten
Knob of butter
Handful of rocket leaves, chopped
Cream cheese, ricotta or mascarpone
1 ripe avocado
1 lime
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Tabasco sauce to taste, red or green
A few coriander leaves

Wrap the tortillas in foil,and put them in the oven to warm.

Fry the chorizo, onions and peppers in a frying pan until cooked and then gently scramble the eggs with the vegetables and sausage, stirring in the rocket.

Spread the tortillas with the cheese, roll them round a filling of scrambled eggs and serve with a sauce made from the avocado, blended with a little lime juice, zest, seasoning and coriander.

Huevos marinero (baked eggs with seafood)

(serves 6-8 as a main course)

good pinch of saffron threads
1 onion, peeled and sliced
4 tbsps olive oil
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 to 2 tbsps finely chopped parsley
150 mls fino sherry
300 mls fish or light vegetable or chicken stock
500g mazzola or eel, skinned, boned and cut up
250g prepared squid rings
250g lightly steamed fresh mussels, prepared weight
250g peeled prawns, lightly sautéed or boiled
125g shelled peas or skinned broad beans
6 eggs

Soak the saffron threads in a little hot stock. Gently fry the onion in the olive oil until golden brown. Add the garlic and then the parsley, wine and stock.

Put in the mazzola or eel and squid and poach gently for 5 or 6 minutes. Transfer the fish to an earthenware bowl or individual bowls. Stir in the mussels, prawns and peas or beans and slide a raw egg into each bowl.

Bring the stock to the boil and pour into the bowls. Put in a preheated oven at 180°C, gas mark 4 for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve very hot.

To make miniature, tapas-like versions, cut the pieces of fish quite small and the squid rings in quarters and use quail eggs in place of hen eggs.