Breakfast Quesadillas

My two favorite food genres would definitely be "Mexican" and "Breakfast." Naturally, I'll take any opportunity to combine the two. They often work really well together and already have a pretty strong precedent to build off of: huevos rancheros.

Since I had some leftover tortillas from my mu shu pork dinner anyway, I invented the "Breakfast Quesadilla" this past weekend. It's a little more complicated than most of my recipes (involving a frying pan and a panini press), but is well worth it.

Ingredients:
1 Large Flour Tortilla
2 Eggs
2 Slices of Pork Roll
Salsa
Cheese (Mexican Blend)

Steps/Analysis:
First thing's first, get your pork roll browned in the frying pan over Medium heat. If you've never had the good fortune to try pork roll before, it's one of the more amazing benefits of growing up in New Jersey. It's a little bacon-y and a little ham-y and all good. There's a number of brands on the market in the area, but for my money it doesn't get any better than Taylor Ham.

The trick to cooking pork roll is to make a cut from the center of its round form to the edge; that will keep it from shrinking into a meaty dome over the heat. Once browned, remove from the stove and cut the slices into quarter circles.

Next, lower the heat on your stove to Medium-Low and coat your pan with a pat of butter. Pour in two beaten eggs and allow to partially set up. Just before the eggs are completely cooked, scatter the pork roll pieces over half of the eggs and spoon on some salsa. Then, gently fold the eggs (now more properly called an omelette) over in half. Allow the eggs to finish cooking.

At this point, you should definitely start heating up the panini press, if you haven't done so already.

To prepare the tortilla, sprinkle a thin layer of cheese over one half. Carefully, lay the eggs on top of that side and sprinkle more cheese on top of that. Then, fold the other half of the tortilla over and place in the panini press.

Once the tortilla is crispy and has those lovely, golden-brown grill marks you're done. Remove to a plate and cut into triangles (I find that a pizza cutter is the best tool for this job).


Serving/Notes:
A little hot sauce is a nice addition, but otherwise there's really nothing else you have to add to your quesadilla. All the goodness is already neatly tucked inside.

I'll eat just about anything in a tortilla, but this is the real deal: a hearty, hand-held breakfast that's kind of fun to make as well as being extremely tasty.

I imagine this dish would be nearly as delicious without using a panini press. You would just have to move fast enough so that the hot eggs melt all the cheese for you. You could probably toast the assembled quesadilla in the frying pan as well (a la grilled cheese sandwich), but it might be difficult to warm both sides evenly.