Bulgarian Toast Adds An Unexpected Twist To Open-Faced Egg Sandwiches

Bulgarian food — or Bulgarian culture at all, for that matter — may not be too well known in the U.S. where persons of Bulgarian ancestry may make up less than .03% of the population. Perhaps the first and only thing that comes to mind when many of us think of this Eastern European country is WWE superstar Rusev (or Miro, as he's now known in AEW). Well, now you will have something else to think of whenever Bulgaria is mentioned and it's something you're likely to think of often and fondly: the open-faced breakfast sandwich known as "prinzesi."

One Instagrammer who goes by the handle themodernnonna shared a recipe for this simple dish a few years back and by now it has garnered over 43,000 likes. While preparing prinzesi undoubtedly takes longer than the 60-second video shows, the recipe couldn't be much simpler: Beat a few eggs with feta cheese crumbles as well as another shredded cheese of your choice, then spread this mixture atop a few slices of buttered bread. Bake it for 10 minutes, then snap your teeth into this tasty, toasty sandwich, a breakfast suitable for Rusev day or any day.

While the prinzesi shown in the Instagram version are made with no more than six ingredients (eggs, salt, feta along with one other cheese, bread, and butter), you can ring all kinds of changes within these limited parameters by varying the breads and cheeses. In the video, the cook is using Bulgarian cheese (kashkaval, perhaps) and rye bread, but you could opt for cheddar, Swiss, or even give it a southwestern spin with pepper jack. As for the bread, any thick-sliced sturdy kind will do, such as French, Italian, or sourdough. Added ingredients can also upgrade your prinzesi. Back in the Instagrammer's Balkan homeland, these sandwiches were served with a side of sliced tomatoes, but you could add the tomatoes before cooking, too.

Another version of this sandwich said to be popular on the not-so-mean streets of Sofia (and other Bulgarian cities) is made with ground meat. In this case, the egg, while still included, takes a back seat to the meat as it's merely used as a binder. To make this heartier version, you'll mix sausage meat with a single egg and with shredded cheese, then season it to taste with salt, pepper, and spices such as garlic and oregano. Spread it over buttered bread slices or halved baguettes (think: Stouffer's French bread pizza), then bake the prinzesi until the meat is cooked through.