Although it sounds like a bad weekend morning commercial (Pizza?! For breakfast?!!), it turns out breakfast pizza is just a creative version of the classic bread-eggs-cheese-meat combo.
It makes an ideal dish for a brunch crowd and isn’t difficult if you start with store-bought pizza dough. Our challenge was getting a crisp crust without overcooking the eggs. To get there, we pressed room-temperature dough into a lightly oiled baking sheet and parbaked it for 5 minutes to give the crust a head start before we added the toppings. The remaining minutes in the oven cooked the eggs just right.
The surprising addition of cottage cheese tethered all the ingredients together with a silky creaminess. Room-temperature dough is much easier to shape than cold, so pull the dough from the fridge about 1 hour before you start cooking.
BREAKFAST PIZZA
Servings: 6
Start to finish: 1 hour
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Make a pizza Margherita like an Italian. Here’s how.
6 slices bacon
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (2 cups)
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (1/2 cup)
4 ounces (1/2 cup) small-curd cottage cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 pound store-bought pizza dough, room temperature
6 large eggs
2 scallions, sliced thin
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 500 F. Grease rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil.
Cook bacon in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp, 7 to 9 minutes. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate; when cool enough to handle, crumble bacon. Combine mozzarella and Parmesan in bowl; set aside. Combine cottage cheese, oregano, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon oil in separate bowl; set aside.
Sprinkle counter lightly with flour. Roll dough into 15-by-11-inch rectangle with rolling pin, pulling on corners to help make distinct rectangle. Transfer dough to prepared sheet and press to edges of sheet. Brush edges of dough with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Bake dough until top appears dry and bottom is just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.
Remove crust from oven and, using spatula, press down on any air bubbles. Spread cottage cheese mixture evenly over top, leaving 1-inch border around edges. Sprinkle bacon evenly over cottage cheese mixture.
Sprinkle mozzarella mixture evenly over pizza, leaving 1/2-inch border. Create 2 rows of 3 evenly spaced small wells in cheese, each about 3 inches in diameter (6 wells total). Crack 1 egg into each well, then season each egg with salt and pepper.
Return pizza to oven and bake until crust is light golden around edges and eggs are just set, 9 to 10 minutes for slightly runny yolks or 11 to 12 minutes for soft-cooked yolks, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
Transfer pan to wire rack and let pizza cool for 5 minutes. Transfer pizza to cutting board. Sprinkle with scallions and chives and drizzle with extra oil. Slice and serve.
