Eggs over Cheese and Prosciutto Rosti

In all of the homes we've lived in now, each one always had an electric stove and I'd gotten quite comfortable cooking with them. I've always wondered, though, what it would be like to cook with the power of gas. So, what made us even more excited with this house than we already were with it was the fact it came with a gas stove top, along with a separate convection wall oven (though not a double oven, but that may happen soon!). Score! It has taken some getting used to, but I love the control and can already tell it would be a struggle to go back!

Like with this Eggs over Swiss Cheese and Prosciutto Rosti we had for dinner tonight... it took me a bit to get the heat right so the dish could cook through, without scorching the potatoes (oops!). For the potatoes, we used good 'ol russets, tossing them whole into a pot of salted water and letting them cook until they were just barely tender. After draining and allowing the tots to cool, we scraped them against a coarse grater, shredding the potatoes into big pile of bite-sized strips.

To season the potatoes, this recipe keeps it simple by just using salt and a bit of fresh ground black pepper, along with a sliced scallion for a mild hint of onion. With a knob of butter melted down in a medium skillet to give a slick coating, half of the potatoes were patted down in the pan, covering the bottom in an even layer. Shredded Swiss cheese was the next layer to go on, followed by a handful of thinly sliced prosciutto and another dose of Swiss cheese. The rest of the potatoes are patted on top, enclosing the cheese-y ham filling in a spud crust.

Because this is not your ordinary stuffed potato cake, when it comes time to flip this Rosti, you'll want to take the extra measure of carefully inverting the potato disc out onto a plate or cutting board first. This not only helps keep it together in one piece, but also allows you to melt down another knob of butter in the pan before nudging the Rosti back in for that brilliant golden crust.

When the bottom of this was as browned and crusty as the top (maybe not as dark as ours went... I told you I'm still getting used to gas!), the potato round was slid onto a cutting board to rest while we used the skillet once more (saving on clean up) to cook enough eggs to top each serving. Certainly cook the eggs to your liking, but let me urge you not to go too far - we only left them in long enough to set the whites, leaving the yolks soft enough that the rich liquid inside would ooze all over the potato wedges when pierced with a fork.

Between the creamy, molten cheese and warm, salty strips of Prosciutto inside, the wicked hash brown-like casing and delicate egg crown, you don't even have to wonder what we thought about this. Simple enough that one could whip this up any day of the week, this just goes to show that meals don't have to be overcomplicated or ingredient laden to be worth making!

Recipes
Eggs over Swiss Cheese and Prosciutto Rosti