pesto sausage and potato breakfast pizza with spicy lemon arugula
Hear ye, a surprising, unexpected, riveting brunch for the weekend upcoming!
Breakfast is a meal series I’m so boring and ordinary with in everyday life that not many recipes have appeared on FMG so far. If you follow my Instagram and view any of the “what I ate” reels I post, I typically nosh on egg whites and toast after my morning workouts. Around the holidays I shared a decadent Baked Hot Chocolate French Toast and a savory Sausage and Cheddar Croissant Bake, but I don’t usually indulge so powerfully on a usual morning.
This pizza, though – this guy broke the wall. It’s different and somewhat fancy, but easy, some degree of healthy, and contains all the food groups according to the outdated pyramid we grew up viewing in health class. God, do ya’ll remember that shit? I think I owned a kid’s almanac back in the day and was obsessed with recreating the chart in my random piddlyfart notebooks. Nowadays there’s recommended intakes for everyone from body builders to marathon runners to couch potatoes, old nags to young guns. Granted, it’s great we’ve finally recognized that people boast different nutritional needs (INNOVATIVE) but the shift is kind of humorous to think on.
Anywho – pizza is a food group. I spread no lies. And why not branch into breakfast pizza to expand your repertoire? Always here to help, I am.
Saw-saj and Friends
Like any of my recipes containing vegetarian sausage, you can certainly swap for the real thing, so keep that in mind if you’re a purist.
When your dough is ready, whether store bought and thawed or homemade and risen, brown the sausage with some olive oil in a skillet until lightly golden all around.
Slice a bunch of baby potatoes very thinly. Use a mandolin if you have one, otherwise a very sharp knife and a steady hand. Think 1/8 inch.
Better Together
Once the ingredients are gathered and appropriately chopped and whatnot, spread your pizza dough onto a stone or a baking sheet into your desired thickness. Poke a few holes in the surface and bake about 6 minutes to set the crust. The parbake is a good friend of mine and ensures the bottom doesn’t get soggy with the toppings. We don’t like soggy bottoms.
To assemble the pizza, spread pesto on the bottom and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Arrange the potatoes on top, then the sausage, and lots of mozzarella cheese. While sprinkling the cheese, make four “nests” within the shreds to later house the eggs.
Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove the pizza and carefully crack the eggs into the nests. Try your best not to snap the yolk. Return the pizza to the oven for 6-8 minutes longer until the egg whites are set and the yolks to your desired runniness.
The final touch? Some green. The Spicy Lemon Arugula adds a bit of peppery flavor and a good crunch to the finished pie. Simply toss arugula, fresh parsley and basil, olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and some salt and pepper. Spread over the warm pizza before or after slicing. The order doesn’t really matter here.
On the vegetarian sausage – my favorites are either Field Roast or Fresh brand. Use what you’re used to and what you like most, but one that crumbles well is useful for this recipe. Jesus, I said some variant of “use” thrice in that sentence. Gotta delete this whole post.
I would not recommend saving leftovers if you can help it, but the pizza as a whole does keep for a couple days. I found that the egg yolk turns a deep orange-yellow and isn’t quite as texturally pleasing. An option is to remove the egg before storing and spreading some extra cheese in the resulting gap. Incentive to pick your plates clean during brunch. Not that such will be an issue with this dope creation.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Eatza more pizza:
Sausage Peppers and Cheese Pan Pizza
Sheetpan Pesto Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza Mac N’ Cheese Stuffed Peppers
pesto sausage and potato breakfast pizza with spicy lemon arugula
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound pizza dough, homemade or store bought
- 2 links vegetarian Italian sausage (or regular)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup pesto, homemade or store bought
- 5-6 baby yellow potatoes, sliced 1/8 inch thickness
- 1 1/2 cups shredded low moisture mozzarella cheese
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups arugula
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- pinch red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees for at least 20 minutes.
- In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium. Crumble and brown the sausage links for 4-5 minutes until lightly golden all over. Move to a plate.
- Spread the dough onto a pizza stone or baking sheet. Poke a few holes in the bottom. Parbake for 6 minutes.
- Spread pesto sauce onto the dough and the red pepper flakes. Arrange potatoes on the pesto, then the sausage. Sprinkle with mozzarella, leaving 4 "holes" spaced out in the center. Bake 8 minutes.
- Carefully crack the eggs in the premade holes in the cheese. Bake 8-10 minutes more until the eggs are set to your liking, the crust is browned, and the cheese melted.
- To make the spicy arugula, toss together the arugula, parsley, and basil with lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Spread over the warm pizza. Slice and serve!
