Meatless Monday: Pizza alla Bismark with Zucchini

Things very often improve the minute you top them with an egg. A lot of people wouldn't agree with that, but a lot of people just haven't quite lived yet, I think. Stacked New Mexican enchiladas, regular ol' cheesey Tex-Mex enchiladas with chili con carne sauce, burgers... the egg just rounds out the flavor. Egg on pizza is not very common in my neck of the woods. In fact, I had never heard of it or even considered it until about a year ago when a friend posted photos on Facebook of his trip through Europe. Lo and behold, there was a pizza with egg on it, and holy pepperoni, Batman! It looked amazing.

The idea has been in my head all that time, but I had never gotten around to making myself one. Until now. A traditional Pizza alla Bismark has ham, from what I understand, but I skipped the ham to honor Meatless Monday and added on some fresh zucchini and oven-dried golden tomatoes. The result was really fantastic... don't skip making your own sauce for this. It's really easy and quick, and the flavor of fresh tomatoes, garlic, and onion goes well with the rest of the ingredients.

homemade pizza sauce, after blending with an immersion blender

One quick note about the crust, I had planned to use a gluten-free flatbread from a local catering company, Primizie, that has proven to be pretty solid, but Central Market was out of it. So I picked up some whole-grain naan instead. The naan ended up being really nice with it—it got perfectly crispy and the whole-grain flavor actually added another subtle layer to it—but you could substitute another type of thin crust or flatbread (or make your own crust from scratch, if so inclined).

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Pizza alla Bismark with Zucchini

Yield: 2 individual-sized pizzas

• olive oil
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced (seeding them will give you a thicker sauce for spreading)
• 1/2 C chopped white or yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T dried Italian oregano
• 2 pieces of whole-grain naan
• shredded mozarella
• 1/4 of a zucchini, thinly sliced
• 2 T minced sun/oven-dried golden tomatoes packed in olive oil (okay to use red ones)
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 eggs
• fresh-cracked black pepper to taste 

1. Heat a small sauté pan over medium-high heat and add just enough olive oil to coat the pan.
2. Add tomatoes, onion, garlic, and oregano and bring to a slow boil, stirring frequently. 
3. Cover, and lower heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then blend with an immersion blender. (If you don't have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender, just be careful blending hot food... it creates a vacuum and can explode out when you take the lid off... or actually cause the lid to go shooting off by itself.) It doesn't have to be perfectly puréed, in fact it's better if there are some chunks left in it.
5. Preheat oven to 400.
6. Divide sauce evenly between two pieces of naan on a baking sheet, and spread evenly. Sprinkle lightly with mozarella cheese.
7. Top with the zucchini slice, dried tomatoes, and red pepper flakes. Crack an egg over the center of each pizza. If the eggs runs too close to the sides, use some mozarella to create a dam (a cheese dam!).
8. Gently place in the oven, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the eggs are over-medium (okay to cook a little less or more depending on your preference).
9. Top with fresh-cracked black pepper.

Before

After

Add a small green salad to this to make a meal.