God's Gift To Pizza Pie: The Egg
Early Phoenicians believed that a primeval egg split open to form heaven and earth; I believe eggs were created for pizza. Peperoni? That's a topping made in America. You won't see it in Italy anywhere. Some thinly-shaved ham is nice. I like basil and cheese, too. But a lightly cooked egg, its white barely set, the yolk runny and viscous, is the greatest pizza topping of all time.
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Don't cut your pizza like the hammer-head in this photo. Let that yolk maintain its integrity. Tear off a large piece of crust from the cornicione and launch your assault, breaking open that canary orb to let the heavens flow.
Egg yolk is rich, thick and fatty. It cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce, producing a balanced simple flavor. It's fun to dip your crust in. It's perfect. A pie topped simply with egg and ham produced a pizza awakening for me.
In Dallas I've only seen egg on the menus of Dough and Cavalli. Dough fries its eggs in a pan before sliding them onto their pies. It's kind of a cheat, as the egg white never really integrates with the pizza, but it's still delicious.
Cane Rosso, to date, has not offered egg as a pizza topping, but that's about to change.
"I love egg on pizza," owner Jay Jerrier told me in an email, adding: "Challenge is the timing in our oven...getting white set and yolk not cooked through in 75 seconds." He's just solved the problem though: Quail eggs. They're perfectly sized to cook to the proper consistency in the 900 degree oven. They should be available soon. Once they are, I won't be far behind.
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