Breakfast Pizza with Cheese Sauce
By AI
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Yield
- One 12-inch pizza, 4 servings
The second time a guest ordered the same breakfast, I stopped calling it a whim. She wanted eggs, sharp cheese, and something she could carry to the pool deck without hunting for a fork. I run pastry on a ship I will not name, and sugar is a tool I put down at dawn. This pizza is what I built for the night bakers who come off shift already tired of buttercream.
Cheese sauce is the whole argument. Tomato fights the eggs. A béchamel loaded with cheddar stays where you put it and tastes like the reason someone came back. I got the thickness wrong for a week: too loose and it wept onto the plate; too stiff and the center of the crust steamed instead of baking. The version that stuck is the one people ordered again.
I still make it when I see the same face at the rail two mornings running. Bacon, scallion, black pepper. Nothing cute. Breakfast should remember you.
Ingredients
- 1 lbpizza dough, brought to room temperature
- 1 tbspolive oil, plus more for the pan
- 4 slicesthick-cut bacon
- 2 tbspunsalted butter
- 2 tbspall-purpose flour
- 1 cupwhole milk
- 4 ozsharp cheddar, grated
- 2 ozGruyère, grated
- 1/2 tspkosher salt, divided
- 1/4 tspfreshly ground black pepper, plus more for the eggs
- 1 pinchfreshly grated nutmeg
- 4large eggs
- 2scallions, thinly sliced
Method
- Heat the oven to 475°F (245°C) with a baking sheet or pizza stone on the middle rack.
- Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on a paper towel, then crumble it.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
- Whisk in the milk a little at a time. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the cheddar, Gruyère, 1/4 teaspoon salt, the pepper, and nutmeg until smooth. The sauce should spread, not pour.
- Oil a 12-inch pan or a sheet of parchment. Stretch the dough into a 12-inch round and dock the center lightly with a fork.
- Spread the cheese sauce over the dough, leaving a narrow rim. Scatter the bacon and most of the scallions on top.
- Make four shallow wells in the sauce and crack an egg into each. Season the eggs with the remaining salt and a little pepper.
- Bake 12 to 16 minutes, until the crust is browned, the egg whites are set, and the center of each egg reaches 160°F (71°C).
- Rest 3 minutes. Scatter the remaining scallions over the top, then slice.
It keeps a day in the refrigerator, wrapped, and reheats in a hot oven better than it does in a microwave. I put a sharp green salad beside it in port and cut fruit when we are not. Hot sauce stays on the side. People are particular, and I like to remember which ones.