Skillet Breakfast Pizza
We all took mom to Prestwick for Mother’s Day brunch this year and my sister and Nick fell in love with this sausage gravy & egg breakfast pizza they had. Their only beef with it was that it was soggy. So of course I had to try to make it at home. Duh!
Well, not to toot my own horn, but toot! toot! Be sure to keep a little side dish of extra spicy sausage gravy next to your plate for dipping… you won’t be sorry.
INGREDIENTS
Pizza Dough (either homemade or store-bought)
Vegetable oil spray
1 pound breakfast sausage, hot or mild (I use Bob Evans Zesty Pork Sausage)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, more to taste
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
8-12 oz Extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
DIRECTIONS
Make or thaw your pizza dough. Don’t use a pre-made dough like Boboli, get some Tiseo’s or Delallo and follow the directions on the package.
With your finger, tear small pieces of sausage and add them in a single layer to a large heavy pan. Brown the sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Sprinkle on half the flour and stir so that the sausage soaks it all up, then add more little by little. Stir it around and cook it for another minute or so, then pour in the milk, stirring constantly.
Cook the gravy, stirring frequently, until it thickens. (This may take a good 10 to 12 minutes.) Sprinkle in the seasoned salt and pepper and continue cooking until very thick. If it gets too thick too soon, just splash in another 1/2 cup of milk or more if needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Coat bottom of 12-inch cast-iron skillet with oil. Transfer dough to prepared skillet and use your fingertips to flatten dough until it is inch from edge of skillet. Cover tightly with plastic and let rest until slightly puffy, about 1 1⁄2 hours.
Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread 1⁄2 cup sausage gravy evenly over top of dough, leaving 1⁄2-inch border (save remaining sauce for another use).
Sprinkle 8 oz Monterey Jack cheese evenly over border. Press cheese into side of skillet, forming 1⁄2- to 3⁄4-inch-tall wall. (Not all cheese will stick to side of skillet.) Evenly sprinkle cheddar over sauce. Bake until cheese at edge of skillet is well browned, 25 to 30 minutes.
Transfer skillet to stovetop and let sit until sizzling stops, about 3 minutes. Run butter knife around rim of skillet to loosen pizza. Using thin metal spatula, gently lift edge of pizza and peek at underside to assess browning. Cook pizza over medium heat until bottom crust is well browned, 2 to 5 minutes (skillet handle will be hot). Using 2 spatulas, transfer pizza to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.
As soon as it’s on the rack and cooling, make your scrambled eggs how you like them and then pop those bad boys on your cooling pizza. You want them hot. The timing should work out perfectly.
