Mediterranean Breakfast Pizza

I love pizza.  I love making pizza, a tiny bit differently every time, yet always the same.  I love the way I can break down the making of pizza into little time boxes, and have my mess cleaned up entirely before the pizza makes it out of the oven.  I love the rich scents of pizza permeating the house, the crusty crust my stone creates, the toppings blended together, yet delightfully distinct.  Sometimes I go a bit crazy and spend more time making a Super Pizza, which can mean pretty much anything, but the common denominator of all Super Pizzas is that that start with my brother-in-law’s unbelievably delectable sauce, which I happened to make last night, for a celebratory meal as we reveled in rejoicing in God’s merciful protection of us in a near-accident yesterday morning.

This is magic stuff.

Since Stephen was officiant all week last week, we didn’t sleep in on Saturday as we usually do, so today was our “lie-a-bed” day.  We read for a couple of hours – I getting almost half-way with N.D. Wilson’s Empire of Bones, and Stephen digesting the Book of Occasional Services 2003.  Once we finally got up and had morning prayer, I asked Stephen what he wanted for brunch.  I know by now that it’s a silly thing to ask, because he generally just wants whatever I’ll make, but I still like giving him the choice, since it’s such a treat for me to be able to cook breakfast for him (since during semester, he eats breakfasts and lunches in the refectory with the other students and the faculty).  So of course I had to go through the list of all the different breakfast foods I can make in a reasonable amount of time with the ingredients that we have, and as a wild card at the end, threw in breakfast pizza, even though I’d never made one before. Since we both love experimenting with food…well, we decided to go with a Mediterranean breakfast pizza.

It was a keeper.  And it was pretty.  And delicious.  And delectable.  Mmm.

Mediterranean Breakfast Pizza

Dough for one pizza (I had pain d’epi dough in the fridge, so I was lazy and used that, but your favourite recipe will work fine)

2-3 Tablespoons basil pesto

2 cups fresh spinach

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

5 marinated artichoke hearts, chopped

5 sundried tomatoes, chopped

4 eggs

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

sea salt

Preheat oven to 475*F with your stone or pan inside, the rack centred.  Roll out your crust thinly.  Place crust on stone, and smear with pesto.  Yum.  Get it as even as possible; it will be fairly thin.  Layer spinach, tomatoes, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes on top.

Now stop and take a picture because the colours are so nice.  Or am I the only one that does that?

Mmm.  Drool.  Now break the four eggs, trying to centre them on each of the four corners of the pizza.  If you are like me, you will fail that task.  That’s okay, though.  There’s always tomorrow.  Please don’t try moving the eggs around to get them positioned properly.  It will spoil the messy-elegant look.  It will probably also make a mess.  Sprinkle sea salt over the entire pizza.  Scatter cheese over the top, and stick it in the oven.

See, it’s even pretty in the ovenlight!

Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until eggwhites no longer jiggle when you move the pan gently.  At 13 minutes, our yolks were solid, too, but still tender.

Eat in the sunlight, if you have any.