The Veggie Omelette Pizza

Written By Brad English

Here we are at the end of my “in depth” study of eggs and pizza — a 3 pizza egg-sperimentation.  This will surely not be the last pizza I make with eggs as there are an infinite number of possibilities to explore using this ingredient on pizza.  The immediate connection is breakfast, which pizza fits right into, performing as the toast that accompanies any good breakfast — helping to serve a delicious egg sandwich of sorts.  Eggs can fit anywhere on a menu.  They are delicious with any meal because they bring such a unique texture into the experience of eating.  Eggs take on accompanying flavors that are more powerful, or distinct and mellow them, or blend them with each other creating a new flavor and texture.

I was recently sent to a sushi restaurant called Sakagura in New York City by a friend of mine I call “The Foodie of all Foodies ” and came across a cold soup called Onsen Tamago.  This was a new experience for me, playing with my concept of flavors, textures and temperature!  Onsen Tomago is a cold soup with soft boiled egg, sea urchin roe and salmon roe.  If you’re squeamish, this soup is not for you!  It was one of the more unique dishes I have ever had.  I am a huge fan of sea urchin, though, so I was down with it.  Many people can’t get past the texture of this, but the flavor is so delicious and balanced that I feel sorry for those who can’t get past the soft, cool pudding-like texture.  The soup base was salty and delicious.  The soft boiled egg fascinated me beyond the silky texture, but the fact that it was so softly boiled and then cooled and perfectly extracted from the shell into the soup.  When I ate the soup, the egg yolk broke and became not only another part of the texture of the soup, but also a new flavor as it mixed with the stock and ingredients.  This cool creamy soup was accented by the delicious fresh uni (sea urchin) and then I came across the cool little jelly pops of the salmon row.  It was really a unique eye opening dish.

Although I’ve taken a side trip here, my point is that anything you like can be enhanced with eggs. They have a uniqueness to them that isn’t shared by many foods.  They transform so much from their natural state to a finished product, and can be served in so many stages along the way in their cooking process.  I started my pizza recipe eggs-ploration with a nod to the classic American breakfast standard of bacon and eggs.  That one is simple.  It’s everything you like about that breakfast and has so many of the elements of a so many pizzas we all eat on a regular basis.  My next eggs-ecution was about the jalapeño and egg combination.  Again, this is my breakfast of champions.  My third in this series is about yet another standard variety of breakfast fare:  The Veggie Omlette.

I hope you enjoy any or all of these, and certainly use them just as starting points and come up with your own favorites.

 

The Veggie Omelette Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough

-I used my favorite Central Milling Germania Flour based Signature Bruery Pizza Dough but use your own favorite dough recipe

Peter’s Herb Oil

Partially sautéed thinly sliced vegetables:  Zuccini, Red Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms and Jalapeños

-I sautéed the veggies to get them started cooking before going onto the pizza.  Season with a little salt and pepper and sauté until just cooked – allowing room for them to finish cooking on the pizza, but getting out much of the moisture so they don’t soak your pizza.

Grated Mozzerella

Chunks of Bel Gioioso’s Italico Cheese

2 Eggs

Canned Chopped Green Chiles to top the baked pizza

 

The Build:

Spread the dough on a well floured peel.

Sprinkle a little of the Herb Oil on the dough.

Add the grated Mozz and pinch off chunks of the Italico Cheese.  I didn’t want this to be all about the cheese, so I used both sparingly.

Add the sautéed veggies.

I wanted to make sure that I got runny, sunny side up eggs on this pizza, so, I decided to set this pizza in the oven and pre-bake it for a couple of minutes and then add the egg and put it back in to finish.

 

The Bake:

Bake in your oven for approximately 2-3 minutes until it sets up so that you can pull it out without it falling apart.

*Make sure you pre-heat the oven for at least an hour to get your pizza stone up to temperature.  I pre-heat at 550 degrees and then turn it to Convection Bake before loading my first pizza, which lowers the temp to 525 degrees.

Pull the pizza out and crack two fresh eggs over the top.

Back into the oven.  Bake until the eggs and crust and all the ingredients are just right.  This should be about 4-5 minutes more.  For

egg pizzas, base the doneness on the eggs.  If you want the crust done more, you may have to sacrifice that to make sure you don’t overcook your eggs.  I have played with this and as you can see from my pictures, this pre-bake and finishing bake seems to work well.  Each oven will vary, so don’t be surprised if you have to figure out your own timing.

The eggs came out great on this one.  You can see the crust has some charring and darkness to the edges and the toppings got a little brown on the edges as well.  The egg is perfectly cooked!  The yolk is soft and ready to be spread across the pizza and become part of the overall sauce.  You can probably pull

the pizza out a little early, because the egg will continue to cook after it’s out of the oven.  (*See my Bacon and Eggs Pizza!)

Carefully spread the yolk around trying not to move all the ingredients away from the center as you do.  You’ll find that you can move things back and forth once you break the yolk and start spreading it out so that you keep the ingredients balanced for each bite.

Finally, top the finished pizza with the chopped green chills, or your favorite salsa.

Cut and serve!

 

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