Breakfast is the meal of champions, but there's not often time to give the first meal of the day your best shot—unless you're armed with this pepper and egg sandwich recipe from fourth generation Staten-Island restaurateurs Sal Basille and Francis Garcia.

Whether you consider yourself a chef or not, this delicious breakfast recipe is easy as a cup of Joe in the morning. It was created by the co-founders of New York City’s beloved restaurant Artichoke Basille’s Pizza as the perfect get-up-and-go fuel with plenty of heft and not much time required in the kitchen. This recipe features prominently in the chefs' recently-released cookbook, Staten Italy.

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Not only cousins but best friends, Basille and Garcia opened the first Artichoke Basille’s Pizza back in 2008 and have since expanded to 12 successful locations across the country. The restaurant has been featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Rachael Ray Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Chew with Mario Batali. These cousins were even written up in The New York Times, The New York Post, New York Magazine and beyond.

Now, these two chefs have released the pepper and egg sandwich to you, in hopes that you can get your day started in Staten Island style.

Pepper & Egg Breakfast Sandwich

Ingredients

• 2 bell peppers, cut into 1½ inch strips
• ½ large onion, cut into 1½ inch strips
• 7 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of salted butter (optional)
• Grated cheese to taste (optional)
• 1 loaf of Italian bread from your favorite local bakery
• Hot sauce to taste (optional)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk and season with half the salt and half the black pepper.
2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add sliced peppers and onions along with the remaining salt and black pepper
3. If you don’t want your vegetables to be blackened at the edges, turn the heat down to medium or medium-low. Cook until the veggies are your desired tenderness, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Turn the heat down to medium if you haven’t already. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet and let it melt.
5. Add the beaten eggs to the skillet and cook, stirring almost continuously with a fork or spatula, until they’re fluffy and scrambled but still a little soft, roughly 2 to 4 minutes. Because the eggs are scrambled with vegetables, they’re not going to be as fluffy as they may be if you made them in a skillet by themselves—but don’t worry, they’ll still taste delicious.
6. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with cheese.
7. Cut the loaf of bread in half lengthwise and open it. Cut the loaf crosswise into three 5- to 6-inch portions. Using your fingertips, scoop out some of the bread from the crust to make space for the peppers and eggs and reserve the bread for bread crumbs another day. If desired, slather the cut sides of the bread with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
8. Pile the eggs and peppers on the bread. Serve the sandwiches immediately with hot sauce to taste.