SOUS-VIDE-EGG AND BACON PIZZA

MAKES ONE 12-INCH PIZZA

“Put an egg on it” has become something of a culinary cliché. But clichés exist for a reason, and I am telling you, putting an egg on your pizza is worth your time.

But there’s an art to delivering pizza hot and with an oozing yolk on top, and my early attempts weren’t promising. Most of the time, the egg was overcooked. Partially baking the dough first didn’t help; in some cases, I overcooked the dough, and in others, my over-easy eggs turned out hard-boiled!

Redemption came by way of an immersion circulator (readily available online; I like the ones made by Sansaire and Anova Culinary), a one-stop appliance for all your sous-vide needs. Sous vide (pronounced “sue-veed” in your Frenchiest accent) is a method of cooking food in a temperature-controlled water bath. After preparing an egg sous vide–style, I simply cracked it on top of my finished pizza for a reliably oozing yolk every time.

While it’s possible to prepare food sous vide without serious machinery, once you start using this method, you’ll become addicted to the flavor and quality, so you might decide that it’s well worth shelling out a few hundred bucks for an immersion circulator. (I make sous-vide eggs almost weekly.) If you don’t want them on your pizza, try them on toast!

1 ball Seventy-Two-Hour Pizza Dough or your favorite pizza dough

Flour for dusting

100 grams (4 ounces) fresh mozzarella, torn

3 or 4 slices bacon, uncooked

1 or 2 sous-vide or poached eggs (see here)

Fine sea salt and pepper

15 grams (1 tablespoon) chopped parsley

1. Preheat the Baking Steel in your oven (here).

2. Stretch your dough into a 12-inch circle (oblong or oval is also fine). Lightly flour your peel and place the dough on top.

3. Set the oven to Broil.

4. Evenly distribute the mozzarella and bacon across the top of the pizza, leaving about 1 inch around the perimeter for the crust.

5. Use a generously floured pizza peel to launch your pizza onto the Baking Steel and bake under the broiler for 2 minutes.

6. After 2 minutes, open the oven and use your pizza peel to give the pizza a 180-degree turn. Turn off the broiler, set the oven to its highest temperature, and continue cooking for another 1 to 2 minutes or until the bacon is cooked and the cheese has attained the desired brownness.

7. Use your pizza peel to remove the pie from the oven. Crack your sous-vide eggs into a bowl and drain any excess liquid with a fine-mesh strainer. Place the eggs on top of your pizza and season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the whole thing. Slice and serve.

SOUS-VIDE EGGS

This easy method will work with most immersion circulators.

1. Set your immersion circulator to 64°C (147°F).

2. Once the water has heated, use a spoon to carefully place the eggs in the water bath.

3. Allow eggs to cook in the water bath for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes in the water bath, remove the eggs and shock them with cold water to stop the cooking process. Once they’re cool enough to touch, you can use the eggs immediately or store in the fridge until ready to use. They’ll keep for 4 to 5 days.

NOTE As an alternative to sous-vide eggs, try poaching your eggs. Any cooking method will work, as long as your eggs are cooked and ready for topping ahead of time.