Serious Eats: Recipes
Cook the Book: Egg Pizza
Kenny Shopsin, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin has no idea how he came up with Egg Pizza, which is "just like pizza except that a normal crust is replaced by a very thin sheet of well-cooked egg." He warns that slices are difficult to pick up, and recommends that you eat it in "the 1940s way...take the wedge, fold it up into a V, and then fold the tip of the V back towards the wide part of the crust."
Serve Egg Pizza with toast for breakfast or salad for lunch. True to Shopsin's form, Kenny offers a dizzying array of toppings including crumbled meatballs, fried onions, and ratatouille: "use whatever turns you on."
Egg Pizza
- makes 2 entrée or 4 appetizer servings -
Adapted from Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin
Ingredients
1 tablespoon clarified butter, regular butter, or ghee
4 extra-large eggs, beaten
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (or more if you really like cheesy pizza; about 3 ounces)
1/4 cup marinara sauce
A big pinch of dried oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Good olive oil for drizzling
Toppings of your choice
Procedure
1. Heat the butter in a large ovenproof skillet over high heat. Pour the eggs in and twirl the pan around so the eggs thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Try to make it as flat and even as you can, but don't go crazy with it. Cook the egg until it separates from the pan, about 2 minutes; it will still look damp on the top side. Flip it over. I flip by jerking the handle of the pan the way you see good line cooks do in diners. (This isn't easy to do, and I don't know how to tell you to do it except carefully. After all the eggs I've flipped, I still hold my breath every thime I go to flip them.) Cook the egg for a few seconds on the second side and then scatter the mozzarella evenly over the surface. Dot the pizza with the marinara sauce and sprinkle it with oregano, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Dust the pizza with the Parmesan cheese, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and then add the topping ingredient of your choice.
2. Leaving the pizza in the pan, place it under the broiler until the cheese is done to the point where you like your melted cheese. Some people like it melted but still white. Some like little brown bubbles on the surface. And some people like to go even further: they like their melted cheese really browned and crispy. My personal favorite way to eat melted cheese is when there are little dots of brown all over, just like little dots on a banana. Remove and serve immediately.