Mini Breakfast Pizzas with Arugula Salad. Did you notice the words pizza and salad on this one? They’re not served side by side as you might expect. The lemony peppery salad is piled on top of the fresh-from-the-oven crispy egg-adorned pizza so that every bite of this deliciousness is loaded with texture and flavor.
Please don’t think for a moment that you can’t do this. You totally can. What you see here is prepared pizza dough that I purchased at my local bakery. Use whatever is available to you. Or even make your own dough, if that’s what you prefer.
Start with about 12-ounces of dough and separate it into four equal pieces. It can be difficult to divide it evenly so I always depend on my digital food scale to give me a hand.
If you have more than 12 ounces of dough on hand, you can always make more mini-crusts than you’ll need at the moment. Just measure out as many 3-ounce portions as you can and partially bake them, then pop the extra discs in a ziplock bag to store them in the freezer for some future date. You’ll be so glad you did.
Roll each dough ball into a circle measuring about 6” to 7” in diameter. If your circles aren’t perfectly round in shape, it’s okay. Rustic is good.
And be sure to give them a generous amount of piercings with the tines of you fork. These guys tend to puff-up considerably in the first baking and those tiny holes will keep that puffing somewhat under control.
After a brief 3-minute initial bake on a very hot preheated pizza stone, the crusts are ready to be dressed with the flavored ricotta cheese. And the star of each show …the egg.
Don’t have a pizza stone?
Even though you’ll achieve the best results using a pizza stone, you can still make these delicious mini pizzas without one. Take one of your large rimmed baking sheets, place it on the oven rack upside down and preheat it as you would a pizza stone. You’ll then have a smooth surface to easily slide the pizzas onto and off of the pan.
Once each mini pizza is topped off with a generous amount of grated Parmesan cheese, carefully slide them onto that preheated stone once again. They’ll hang out in the oven until the egg is cooked to your liking …about 6 to 10 minutes. It all depends on the size of your eggs and whether or not you like the yolk to be on the runny side.
While the pizzas are baking, prepare the arugula salad. It’s not very involved …just a light dressing of extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice and some salt & pepper. It’s not advisable to dress the arugula ahead of time since it tends to wilt when you do.
Your Mini Breakfast Pizzas with Arugula Salad are almost ready to be devoured.
The moment the pizzas are removed from the oven, top each one off with a generous amount of arugula salad. If you like, add a sprinkling of additional grated Parmesan cheese and a bit of lemon zest. Serve these beauties immediately while the crust is still crunchy, the cheesy-gooey-egg still warm and the arugula still crispy.
You now can see how quickly these breakfast treats come together. Especially if you have the mini crusts prepared and hangin’ out in the freezer waiting to be enjoyed. Imagine making these breakfast pizzas on a busy weekday morning, It really is possible.
mini breakfast pizzas with arugula salad
Adapted from Cooking Light
Enjoy your pizza and salad all at the same time with these delicious breakfast treats.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fresh pizza dough
- all-purpose flour, for dusting
- 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest (plus more for serving, if desired)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for serving, if desired)
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 cups packed baby arugula
Instructions
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Let dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 4 pieces.
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Place a pizza stone or large baking sheet in oven; preheat to 450°F. Leave the stone in oven as it preheats.
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On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough into a 6 to 7-inch circle. Pierce liberally with the tines of a fork.
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Carefully arrange 2 dough circles on the hot pizza stone. Bake at 450°F for 3 minutes. Remove from oven, and flip so that the cooked side is facing up. Set aside. Repeat with remaining 2 dough circles
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Stir together ricotta cheese and zest in a medium bowl. Divide the ricotta mixture evenly among the cooked sides of dough circles; sprinkle evenly with 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Top each dough circle with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan.
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Working in 2 batches, return topped dough circles to the hot pizza stone. Bake at 450°F until egg whites are set and yolks are still a little runny, about 6 to 10 minutes.
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Whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Stir in the arugula so that the leaves are evenly coated.
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Top each cooked pizza with about 1 cup dressed arugula. If desired, sprinkle a small amount of additional grated Parmesan over each along with a bit of lemon zest. Serve immediately.
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More breakfast treats…
Oh yes! I would definitely devour this!
Our next visit …it’s on the menu!
We use prepared pizza dough a lot and have found that it will NOT roll out unless it’s at room temperature. Cool dough keeps wanting to shrink up and is hard to work with. Just a comment that someone might find helpful.
So true, Lizzie! I may need to edit the recipe to add this helpful hint. The “30 minutes at room temperature” mentioned in the recipe may not be long enough, depending on the dough. Thank you!