Breakfast Pizza

Breakfast is my least inspired meal of the day, that’s for sure. I’ve been eating the same brand of cereal for the last 25 years and will do anything to avoid meeting friends for brunch…..I think it has something to do with not wanting to mess up my appetite for lunch or heaven forbid! dinner. Crazy, I know. I must be missing out on a whole slew of delicious ingredients and combinations. But I see a change coming…thanks to a segment I am doing on a radio station (more on that later), I am now about to become more familiar with ‘the most important meal of the day’.

Here is something I could sink my teeth into. Perhaps you could too:

Breakfast Pizza!

Bacon , mozzarella (or ‘moozarell’ as they say here in New York), tomatoes, and a freshly cracked egg on top.

Hopefully the picture says it all, but it’s really good. I did make one mistake – I didn’t pay enough attention to the bread, and that is the thing that carries it after all. Über importante.

I used what I had in the house, which was a very thin, very small, circular bread. Circular is good, but make sure it’s good quality bread and not too thin and not too small. A slice of sourdough would be good, or a flat bread. Of course pizza dough, which you can get from a pizzeria or at the supermarket, would work brilliantly.




But, incase you’re stuck with the regular bread you have at home, try to make it work.

The problem is that if the base is too small,  once you crack the egg it tends to run off.
I joined two pieces together this way, by cutting into one piece and joining it as closely as possible to the other.

Ingredients: (one serving)

Olive Oil
One plum tomato, sliced and sprinkled with Maldon Salt and black pepper
Enough mozzarella to sprinkle generously over tomatoes (about ⅓ cup)
4 strips of bacon, cooked (not to the point of crispiness as they will continue to cook on the pizza)
One egg
Cilantro/coriander for garnishing
Sliced Avocado
Maldon Salt and cracked pepper
Hot sauce (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven to 500˚F/ 250˚C (if using a pizza stone, place in oven to pre heat as well)
Lightly toast the bread (it will cook more in the oven so make sure you don’t over toast) and place on a pizza stone or baking sheet.
Drizzle bread lightly with olive oil
Place tomatoes on the bread, covering as much of the surface as possible.
Leaving a ‘well’ in the center, sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the tomatoes.
Place the bacon around the well, slicing and dicing as you see fit.
Carefully crack the egg into the well. If some of the egg white runs over, it’s ok….it’s unavoidable at the best of times.
Place the pizza stone/baking sheet inside oven and cook for about 10 minutes or until the egg looks cooked (I needed to cook mine a little longer, about 5 minutes longer, but your oven may differ. Just keep checking after 10 mins; you’ll know when it’s done)
Take it out and let cool for a minute or two. *remember the stone will be HOT! Take care when removing*
Garnish with cilantro/coriander, sliced avocado and hot sauce….season to taste.

You could substitute or add any of the ingredients above — you could use goat cheese, prosciutto, salami, figs, mushrooms, chillies, …anything you can think to put on a pizza.

Recipe inspired by this

Look out for more breakfast ideas in the next few weeks!