Even after the Eggplant Parmigiana Shakshuka I’m still in an eggy-breaffast/brunch mood. Or at least my stomach is! This week’s recipe is Roma Eggs—a sandwich stacked with tons of Mediterranean flavor. And I mean tons thanks to its namesake Roma tomatoes, prosciutto, parmesan, and more. It’s all topped off with a poached egg, which is why I chose it. I have never been able to poach an egg without using my egg cooker. No matter how many techniques I try, I end up with egg soup, so I’m a little nervous but still excited to try to pull this off. Fingers crossed!
Kitchen Director Kellie Evans created this Italian-style egg sandwich as an alternative to Eggs Benedict.
The Ingredients
My pre-shopping ingredient check found a few ingredients on hand. I had parmesan left over from the Eggplant Shakshuka I made recently. My pantry also had some kosher salt, black pepper, and white wine vinegar. I was running low on olive oil and pesto, so I added them to my grocery list.
The rest of the ingredients were all found at my usual grocery store. I did have to look up Roma tomatoes, and they are called plum tomatoes here. Also, I bought packaged prosciutto that didn’t list how many slices, just the weight. I grabbed two 2-ounce packages and found out each had seven slices.
I did think about making the pesto myself but ended up buying jarred instead. The cost of the basil and pine nuts would have been lots more than an 8-ounce jar.
Lastly, I only found square-shaped sliced ciabatta rolls. The ciabatta shown in the recipe looks more elongated, but the square shape was fine. I did trim the edges slightly to make it look more like the recipe, but it was strictly for looks and not a requirement.
The Process
This wasn’t a difficult recipe, but I made some mistakes the first time I made it. Let’s say I refined my technique the second time around, and that went a lot better.
I wasn’t sure how fast this recipe would move once I began cooing, so I prepped all the ingredients before I began cooking. Also, this recipe is for four sandwiches, but I made it in servings of two since it’s just my husband and me. Making four would have added a few minutes since the skillet wasn’t large enough to fry all the prosciutto or tomatoes in one batch.
Step 1: Toasting the Bread
The first time around, I was way too generous with the olive oil. I brushed it onto the inside top and bottom of the bread until it turned yellow, then I popped it into the oven to toast. After 10 minutes, the bottom had crisped some, but the oiled tops felt like they were just beginning. I added another five minutes and still no joy.
I ended up finishing them in my air fryer/toaster oven on the bagel setting on low. If you’re not familiar with the bagel setting, let me fill you in (I had no clue until I bought this oven). It toasts on one side, which leaves the outside of your bagel soft and the inside crisp and ready for a schmear of cream cheese. I admit it blew my late-40s mind and made so much sense.
But back to all that olive oil. It wasn’t a problem until I let the sandwich sit through photos with a generous amount of pesto on the bread. Then I began eating and the bottom of the bun disintegrated. No amount of toating could have withstood tons of olive oil and pesto.
I was much more reserved with the olive oil on my next try. In fact, I had trouble seeing it on the bread! I dipped the brush, let the excess drip off for a few seconds, and brushed on the thinnest layer. I had to wiggle the bread to see the light reflect to make sure the bread hadn’t absorbed it. I also skipped the oven and toasted it in my toaster oven on the bagel setting. It came out perfectly!
Step 2: Frying the Prosciutto & Tomato
This step was largely trouble-free, but I did notice a few things. First, preheating is vital to get crispy prosciutto in just two minutes. Let your pan and oil heat for two minutes (four if you are using cast iron). I used a 10-inch nonstick skillet because the prosciutto was so delicate.
Second, olive oil has a low (low!) smoke point, and it began to smoke when I turned the heat to six (out of 10) on an electric stove. On my second try, I preheated the pan to five and turned it down to four after I added the prosciutto. It still smoked a little, but it was much less than the first time.
Finally, adding moist tomato slices to a hot pan filled with oil causes a lot of spatters. Not that the prosciutto was spatter-free, but the tomatoes were another level. Keep a spatter screen handy for both.
Step 3: Poaching the Eggs
This was the step I was most unsure about, but it was much easier than I imagined. I admit I thought poaching in a skillet was strange, but I trusted the process. It was pretty successful after years of barely being able to poach them in my egg cooker, forget about in boiling water. I did have a few problems, though, and kept trying until I worked them out.
My first try at poaching eggs was good but not great. I cracked both into 3.5-inch prep bowls and eased them into the simmering water. They looked like they were flying apart at first, but they coalesced over four minutes and came out in a fairly flat oval shape that fit nicely on a sandwich. However, the centers were cooked through, and I wanted them to be runny.
My second try didn’t go quite as well. I didn’t fill the skillet as much, and the yolk wasn’t able to fully submerge. The result reminded me of an eye since the yellow yolk wasn’t covered at all by the egg white. It was edible but still not the runny egg I wanted.
The third time was a charm! I filled the skillet almost to the brim and brought it to a simmer. Then I slipped the dish with a cracked egg into the water and set a timer for three minutes. The result was an over-medium cooked egg with a cooked white and runny center. It was exactly what I wanted!
And I want to note that salting the water was the only extra salt I used. The pesto, parmesan, and prosciutto were salty on their own, so no extra was needed on the sandwich.
Timing
This recipe did not list prep, cooking, or total time. It did list cooing times in the instructions, so that’s what I’ll use for the time rating. I did, of course, keep track of my time, and here’s how it was spent:
- 9 minutes to prep
- 20 minutes to cook
- 29 minutes total
