Hungarian Tomato-Pepper Stew (Lesco)

Have you ever had stew for breakfast? As of a few weeks ago, I have!

When my brother came to visit last month, I basically forced him to join in my international cuisine challenge. We settled on breakfast and decided to go with a European country we're less familiar with. 20 minutes of Googling recipes later, and we settled on Hungarian breakfast stew, served over creamy polenta (which is, apparently, a common breakfast element in Romania), with a fried duck egg on top (because I'd just bought duck eggs from some friends, and we were excited to try them).

I'm seriously slacking in the photography department lately, mostly because I've been sharing meals with friends instead of eating alone. Which is an excellent thing for me, but it means I don't have a lovely photo to share with you. Sorrynotsorry.

Hungarian Tomato-Pepper Stew (Lesco)
From The Spruce
Yield: 4 servings (see notes)

Ingredients
1-2 slices bacon
1 Tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 pound of peppers, sliced into 1/4" strips - use Hungarian wax peppers if you can find them, or banana, Italian, or green bell peppers, or some combination thereof
4 medium or 3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1-1/2 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika

Directions
In a large skillet, cook bacon according to package directions. Remove bacon to a plate to cool, but leave all that tasty grease in the skillet.

Add in the oil and onion, and cook for about 5 minutes on low heat. Add pepper(s) and continue cooking for 15 more minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, salt, and paprika to the skillet, and let it cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it looks and feels like a chunky tomato sauce.

Meanwhile, crumble the bacon after it has cooled; stir it into the dish when it's close to being done.

Notes

• This made 4 moderate to generous servings if served with polenta and a fried egg. If you're not making accompaniments, then this recipe may only give you 2-3 servings.
• I went to the store fully expecting to be stuck with green bell peppers, but they actually had Hungarian wax peppers! The sign said they're medium-hot, so I decided to get one green bell pepper to bring down the heat level, and used wax peppers to make up the rest of the pound. The dish didn't taste super spicy, but I was coughing something awful while Josh was cutting the wax peppers.