Sfogliata con Prosciutto e Fontina

In the Valle d'Aosta, where Italy meets France and Switzerland, breakfast is not the hurried affair Americans know. There is coffee, strong and dark. There is bread, perhaps some fruit. And on special mornings, there is something like this: puff pastry, prosciutto cotto, and Fontina from the local cows that graze in Alpine meadows.

I must tell you about the Fontina. Real Fontina Val d'Aosta has a controlled designation. It comes only from that one valley, from cows that eat grass in summer and hay in winter. The cheese melts into pools of ivory richness, slightly nutty, never stringy. Swedish or Danish imitations will not do. If you cannot find true Fontina, use Gruyère, which at least has dignity.

The prosciutto here is cotto, not crudo. Cooked ham, sliced thin. The raw cured ham would fight with the delicate cheese. Cotto surrenders, becoming silky as it warms. This is the difference between ingredients that cooperate and ingredients that compete.

Two fillings. Puff pastry. That is all. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in.