It seems we have a liking for the open face sandwich here at FFA. Ones with gravy-esque sauces, too. I dunno - a secret longing for less carbs with the one-less piece of bread, maybe? Hmm - nah! I think this one just sounded pretty darn good as I strolled through a recent issue of Southern Living magazine. Is it just me or does that magazine not feature as many recipes as it used to? Anyway, I love the magazine and am glad to have a subscription to it now. I love it when recipes speak to me from the page of a magazine, just as this one did.

It seems like a lot of ingredients and, possibly, work for a mere sandwich, but these were very much worth it - and not that much work, actually. I was curious about the arugala, more than anything though. I’d heard it has a peppery flavor. We shall see!

So first we cooked up the thin pancetta slices, which I jokingly told sis blogging partner looked like little tiny bacon-like alien flying saucers. Or little bacon brains. Little alien bacon brains, mmmmm.

No matter, we knew they’d taste great. Because it’s pancetta, folks. The stuff is profound.

Next you make up a simple salad of sorts by mixing the arugula, parsley, thin-sliced onion, olive oil and lemon juice. I popped a piece of arugula in my chomper at that point…and I was honestly not sure I was going to like the stuff. Wow, it is definitely peppery and very potent!

The bread gets prepped with a little butter for toasting under the broiler.

Folks, don’t try to broil these things while doing another part of the recipe like I did. I know better than that but I still went on to do something else and almost burned the bread. Those broilers, they ain’t playing.

Hello, stars of this recipe! Don’t cook too long now. We want those purty yolks to runneth over at least a little bit. *lick*

We like to set up sandwich prep stations for assembly time - smart, yes? We were treated at this time to a special visit from our infrequent miniature cooking assistant, who insisted on making up the sandwiches for us.

First goes on a layer of the arugula salad, then a generous three slices of the thin pancetta.

Top with a fried egg and a drizzle of Hollandaise sauce. Maybe a tad more sauce.

When you’ve sprinkled on some chopped sun-dried tomato, we highly recommend a pause to appreciate your handiwork, like so!

Thank you for stopping by, Infrequent Miniature Cooking Assistant! She has just the right touch, don’t you think? We pay her in cookies, it’s quite the thing these days. And legal.

The original calls these Fried Egg Sandwiches, but we thought they were Fancy Egg Sandwiches - they so are. Just look at those beautiful greens with the onion, FANcy. By the way, the arugula tastes fantastic with all these other ingredients combined. By itself it is potent, but it’s a total taste bud team player when taken with a bit of the onion, bread, egg, pancetta, sauce….yummmm. I just wish I could buy it in smaller quantities at the grocery store! Had to get a container big enough to feed the whole county.

I’ve always loved a warm egg on toast. It’s a very simple yet comforting and filling meal. Why not change that up a little with this version? We absolutely promise that it tastes fantastic.

Fancy Egg Sandwiches

from Fried Egg Sandwiches, Southern Living, April 2012

Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Level: Easy Serves: 4

• 4 (1/2-inch-thick) challah bread slices
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (0.9-oz.) envelope hollandaise sauce mix
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, divided
• 2 cups loosely packed arugula
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 12 thin pancetta slices, cooked
• 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Preheat broiler with oven rack 5 to 6 inches from heat. Brush both sides of bread with butter; place on an aluminum foil-lined broiler pan. Broil 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until lightly toasted.

Prepare hollandaise sauce according to package directions; stir in zest and 1/2 tsp. lemon juice. Keep warm.

Toss together arugula, next 2 ingredients, 2 tsp. olive oil, and remaining 1 tsp. lemon juice.

Heat remaining 1 tsp. olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Gently break eggs into hot skillet; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or to desired degree of doneness.

Top bread slices with arugula mixture, pancetta slices, and fried eggs. Spoon hollandaise sauce over each egg, and sprinkle with tomatoes. Serve immediately.

Notes:

Can’t find challah in your bakery? Use whatever bread you like. While we enjoyed the challah it’s honestly not the star of this dish. It holds it all, but your favorite bread can do that just as well.

I almost couldn’t get a hold of a mix for the hollandaise, but my mother came through, assuring me it’s much easier with the mix. I dunno, I say if you know how to make one and don’t mind the extra work, go for it. We were happy with the mix, though.

We forgot to buy red onion, but had sweet onions on hand and used those instead. We really, really liked the sweet onions, so substitute those if you already have them as opposed to buying red onion just for this. It will work just as well.

I asked my deli worker to slice the pancetta about 1/8 or so thick, though she cut it a bit thinner than that. You just don’t want it to be paper thin and it shouldn’t be as thick as American thick-cut bacon. Unless, you know, that’s how you prefer it.

I ended up mistakenly picking up smoked sun-dried tomatoes - whoopsies. Luckily they tasted really good!

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