Brussels Sprouts Pizza

 

It’s entirely possible that I made this Brussels sprouts pizza one rainy mid-day and then proceeded to eat it for three successive meals.  It’s versatile like that.

 

While most people may look at a Brussels sprouts pizza and think “lunch” or “dinner,” I go the extra step and think, “why not breakfast?”

 

 

And it totally works.  It’s filling, it’s fresh, and it’s easy to eat on the go –  if you’re a horrible morning person and have a tendency to sleep through three {three!} alarms and wake up 20 minutes before you’re supposed to be out the door.  There’s little time for a leisurely bowl of cereal or pancakes when you have 20 minutes to wake up, shower, get dressed, and find something to sustain you until lunch.

But it’s easy to grab a slice of pizza as you stumble through your dark apartment {lights are too hard in the morning}, tripping over the cat, your shoes, and last night’s jeans.  There are a multitude of morning tasks that can be easily accomplished with a pizza in one hand: mascara application, shoe donning, cat head scratching.

So pizza – breakfast of champions.

 

 

I never thought, that in my late twenties I’d still be advocating pizza for breakfast.

Sometimes I feel like I’m channeling a 21-year-old frat boy, rolling over into a pile of dirty t-shirts and flipping open yesterday’s box of greasy pizza for a quick bite before 11 am Psych class.

 

But really, this is so much classier.  Fresh mozzarella, crispy, salty bacon, and Brussels sprouts {a vegetable, no less!}.  There isn’t a delivery box in sight.

So yes, pizza for breakfast is totally ok.  Munch away.

 

We’re adults now.

 

 

Brussels Sprouts Pizza
Inspired by Shutterbean

1 batch pizza dough
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
6 slices bacon, diced and cooked
1 pint fresh Brussels sprouts
Drizzle good olive oil
Parmesan cheese, for grating
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (or as high as your oven will go) with a pizza stone on the bottom rack.

Begin by trimming the ends off the Brussels sprouts and removing the first couple layers of leaves.  Toss these.  Then, remove the leaves from all the Brussels sprouts and set aside.  It will seem like you have way too many leaves, but they will cook down and wilt a little in the oven, so you want more than you think you’re going to need.

Roll out your pizza dough very thin.  You want the dough thin so that it will cook before the Brussels sprouts leaves burn, which can happen quickly.  Place the dough on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal, or an upside down cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.

Top the dough with the mozzarella slices, sprinkle with bacon, and finish with the Brussels sprouts leaves.   Drizzle the top with good olive oil and slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone.

Bake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned and the leaves are just beginning to turn light brown – do not let them burn!

Carefully, remove the cooked pizza from the {VERY HOT} pizza stone and grate fresh Parmesan cheese on top, adding salt and pepper, to taste.

Let the pizza stone cool in the oven, otherwise it may crack.