Eating leftover pizza for breakfast is a time-honoured tradition. Whether you prefer it cold and a little soggy, straight from the box, or heated in a pan or broiler until the cheese bubbles, pizza is a near-perfect antidote to whatever kept you up way too late the night before in the first place.
This breakfast pizza — topped with sharp pecorino cheese, brawny bits of bacon and runny-yolk eggs — is nothing like that leftover take-out. That’s not to say it is better, but it is certainly a different type of pizza experience, one worth getting out of bed a little early for.
The bacon and eggs make it suitable for breakfast. Plus, instead of red sauce, this white pie is slathered with ricotta and mozzarella, so it is both extra rich and a little more coffee-friendly.
Although making home-made pizza for breakfast is not something you would undertake on a weekday, it is just right for a weekend brunch. You do not need to make your own pizza dough (unless you want to). Just remember to defrost any frozen dough the night before so it is ready to go in the morning.
Then it is just a matter of assembling ingredients and precooking the bacon.
Crispy bacon for a breakfast pizza recipe - Picture Andrew Scrivani -The New York Times
You can fry the bacon in a pan, if you like, but I prefer baking it as the oven preheats. This is especially convenient if you have a pizza stone, since it needs at least 20 to 30 minutes to properly heat up.
While the oven is on, you may as well throw in a pan of bacon to brown.
Fresh regular mozzarella or buffalo mozzarella are ideally sweet and creamy, but even supermarket mozzarella gets the job done in a pinch. That’s because the focus will be on the crisp chunks of bacon and runny egg yolk beside the gooey cheese.
Keeping the yolks runny is the main challenge in making this dish. Under a strong broiler, they can go from perfect to firm in just a few seconds. Watch the pizza carefully, and pull it out a few seconds before the yolks are to your taste. The residual heat will finish cooking them.
Serve your pizza for breakfast, brunch or a dinner. It is even fancy enough to offer guests — something best not attempted with take-out leftovers of any variety.