Dressed Arugula and Crisped Prosciutto Egg Sandwich: Build a Better Breakfast Sandwich

This breakfast sandwich recipe combines champagne vinaigrette dressed arugula, crisped prosciutto, fried eggs, and plenty of cheese all on a toasted bun. It’s better than your standard muffin + cheese + egg + ham and worth all the minutes you spent dreaming it up under the covers.

I dream of being a morning person, waking up before the dawn and savoring a few quiet moments before my day begins, hands wrapped around a warm mug. Everything about how I function makes this seem like the best way to start my day – appealing to the introvert – yet I fail at mornings. Mornings and I have never been friends, if I’m honest. I dislike pulling back the sheets and embracing the day. I prefer to snuggle further beneath the blankets, pulling them up to my nose, and pretending I have hours left to sleep.

This has been a month of mornings. Each day has gone laughably off course by nightfall, whether there are car accidents blocking the path to eyeglass appointments (only to reveal my son’s never seen anything in focus) to broken wholesale-size bottles of hot sauce across the kitchen floor. I’ve pulled myself from between the sheets, rubbing sleep from my eyes, only to be greeted by to-do lists, snowdrifts demanding to be shoveled, and phone calls to let me know my grandmother has passed away.

I’d like my November back, please. I was doing it all wrong, forcing myself out before dawn broke on the horizon. I remember the beauty of sleeping in, of slowly waking to meet the day rather than running at it full speed. Research shows I’m smarter and more creative for being a night owl anyway. Who am I to argue with research, especially when it gratifies my desire to remain at my computer longer than is necessary and to crack open a book even when I do finally climb under the covers for warmth?

I’d like to request all mornings feel like you’re on holiday. Wake when it suits you, lazily make a cup of coffee while lounging in pajamas, slowly toast bread and fry eggs, and make a proper salad to place that egg upon. All eggs deserve a properly dressed salad, and all salads deserve a runny-yolked egg.

There is something about a done-up breakfast sandwich that appeals to me the same way pulling the covers back up to my chin does. This feeling is sandwiched between the toasted bread that suggests you can grab this to go, but the fried egg and more intricate toppings tell a tale of time spent slowly waking to meet the day. Or perhaps it doesn’t say these things at all, and I am simply typing in order to fill the space.

Regardless, I asked my children what their idea of a perfect breakfast sandwich was and how they liked their eggs. We had a rousing debate over the merits of hard yolks (less messy) over runny (tastes better) over scrambled (can crumble). We discussed types of cheese, whether melted on the carb vehicle of choice or not; vegetables, if any; and finally, the type of bread or wrap or bun that should be used in order to call this a breakfast sandwich and not hash or egg on plate with fixings. I’ve decided that bagels need not apply here. Bagels and their possible toppings are a separate subject. Then we made breakfast sandwiches – late in the day, after coffee for me and bananas for them. The results were far more creative than any 6-a.m. sandwich with the same name.

These happen to be my creation, combining a sunny-side up egg intended to break and drip down into the champagne vinaigrette dressed arugula and then to the crisped prosciutto and melted Kerrygold Dubliner cheese that sit on a toasted focaccia roll. The focaccia is nice because it’s soft and chewy without being difficult to bite into properly, but a milk bun could be substituted here as well. You know, if we’re making inspired, late-morning breakfast sandwiches. The Dubliner can stand up to the richness of the egg and the harshness of the arugula and dressing without being overshadowed and becoming cheese just for cheese’s sake.

Dressed Arugula and Crisped Prosciutto Egg Sandwich

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Total Time: 14 minutes

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Ingredients

• 4 focaccia rolls or milk buns
• 2 ounces Dubliner cheese or aged cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups baby arugula
• 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 ounces prosciutto

Instructions

Halve the rolls and sprinkle both sides with the shredded cheese. Place under the broiler just until toasted and cheese is melted.

For the salad, place the arugula in a medium bowl. Drizzle the vinegar and oil over the leaves, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Split the arugula between the four buns.

In a medium skillet, add the olive oil and butter and heat over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the pan. Cook until the whites are opaque and the yolks develop a light film over the top. You can turn down the heat if the eggs are starting to cook to quickly on the whites, and you can also spoon the hot oil and butter over the top of the yolk to add in cooking. If preferred, just flip your eggs and serve them over-easy instead.

Place eggs on the toasted rolls on top of the dressed arugula. Return the pan to the heat and increase to medium-high. Add in the prosciutto and cook just until crisp. Remove pan from the heat and add prosciutto to the sandwich. Top each sandwich with the second half of the buns and serve immediately.

This post was not sponsored by Kerrygold, but I do receive occasional work and packages of butter and cheese from them, so disclose I shall.