Wraps, toast and tortillas

Here are a few more ideas for introducing a protein element to breakfast:

Buy wheatflour or corn tortillas and spread with ricotta and sliced tomatoes, or with scrambled eggs, sprinkled with a little Tabasco and topped with sliced spring onions, rolled up for a breakfast tortilla.

Warm a pitta bread, split it and fill with a single egg omelette, home-made egg mayonnaise or sliced hard-boiled egg and lettuce.

Fry sliced mushrooms in olive oil until soft. Season with pepper and a little paprika to taste and grate in a ġbejna. While the mushrooms are cooking, toast some Maltese bread. Spoon the mushrooms onto the toast while still hot. Wholemeal bread can be used in place of ħobża if you prefer. And if you prefer herbs to spices, use chopped parsley and chives in place of the chilli and paprika.

Lightly toast some Maltese bread. Cut a garlic clove in half and rub the cut side over the toast. Do the same with a half tomato, pressing down well to transfer the tomato pulp to the toast. Trickle on a little extra virgin olive oil and top with a thin slice of ham or cheese.

If you want to make this in a larger quantity, use a blender or food processor. Put three or four large ripe tomatoes in the processor, three or four peeled garlic cloves and about 100ml extra virgin olive oil.

Blend for about a minute, and scrape carefully into a bowl or container. You will see that the mixture has emulsified almost to a mayonnaise thickness. Spread the tomato mixture on thin slices of Maltese bread, or on toasted baguettes, or wholemeal. Let the mixture soak in a little before serving topped with ham or cheese.