Sweet Potato Fritters with Sunny Side Up Eggs & Crisped Pancetta

It's been a week of quick bowls of cereal and coffee cups out the door.  So, this weekend I decided to devote some time to a proper breakfast - or brunch as the case may be.  Rummaging through the fridge I found some left over baked sweet potato spears (from a dinner Ray made me!).  Running with my recent sweet potato obsession, I decided to make sweet potato fritters and eggs.  What resulted was something akin to eggs benedict with a truly southern slant.

Sweet Potato Fritters with Sunny Side Up Eggs & Crisped Pancetta, for two

1/2 c. mashed sweet potatoes (skins on)

1/4 c. cornmeal

1 tbsp. butter (cold)

2 slices of pancetta

2 eggs

1 c. baby spinach, washed

salt & pepper to taste

Heat a skillet over high heat and brown the pancetta until crisp (about 3 minutes).  While the pancetta is cooking, combine the cornmeal, butter & sweet potatoes in a medium bowl and mash together with a fork (or your hands).  Remove the pancetta and set aside on a paper towel to drain.  

Make a bed of spinach on your plate and set aside.  Then, form the potato mixture into two small fritters (cakes).  Leaving the drippings in the pan, put the fritters in and brown on both sides (about 5 - 7 minutes).  Set the fritters on the beds of spinach.   The heat from the fritters will wilt the spinach ever so slightly.

Once your fritters are settled on your spinach, top with the pancetta. Then, fry your eggs to your liking (I like sunny side up) and top the pancetta with the egg. This should leave you with a little tower like construction of spinach, fritter, pancetta & egg. Salt and pepper your egg to taste.