Tomato & Arugula Pizza

Yes, finally we delve into the actual pizzas! Part 3 in the series “Pizza with Dave.”I mentioned that my friend Darla and I concocted several types of pizzas.  She would toss an ingredient at me, and I’d toss one right back.  After we assembled this pizza mentally, it became the one I was most excited to make, but worried would photograph oddly and in the end not be as tasty as it was in our minds.
I guess I need to learn to trust my instincts more.Dave and I put this pizza together, baked it, ate it, loved it, and made three more.  Then it dawned on me, and I exclaimed most dramatically, “Dave, we forgot the egg.”  We had to remake the pizza (we didn’t actually complain about that part though.)  Second making…even better.The egg was laid that morning by one of his hens.  Fresh eggs have the yellowest yolks I have ever seen.  Very vibrant and almost unnatural looking when you’re accustomed to store-bought eggs.  The shells are also harder, so you have to give them a more forceful whack!

Along with his hen laying the egg that morning for our pizza, Dave made fresh mozzarella too.  As he retrieved the first ball out a mason jar filled with what looked like primordial ooze, he dropped it on the ground.  All I could think of was a line from the movie Pretty Woman “slippery little sucker,” when the ever wonderful Julia Roberts lost control of her oyster at a very fancy dinner/business meeting.  I’m pretty sure his dog Maggie enjoyed it.

We assembled our second pizza. It baked. It cooled. Then my real challenge…how to cut that bad boy! I felt I had to just do, take the pizza cutter and just go right through the middle.  I knew yolk was going to be everywhere, but that was the point, a set egg white, a running yolk, spreading its rich deliciousness all over the arugula, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella.

If a choir of angels were ever going to sing for a single bite of food, this was the time they would gather.  The blending of crisped, slightly charred (in a good way) dough, homemade sauce, fresh tomatoes and cheese, the earthy arugula combining with the hearty, robust, regal yolk, well as I type this up, a tear streaks my eye in memory of this bite, a bite that filled my heart and soul with love and joy.

Now to make this…I can’t exactly tell you how much of anything to put on as pizza making is so personal.  But take care not to put too much stuff on a pizza.  In pizza assembly, less is more.  We made personal-size pizzas from 7” balls of dough.  Depending on how thick you roll it out will determine your size.  I used two kitchen-spoon tablespoons to apply the sauce to the dough.  I grabbed a handful of arugula, about 7 cherry tomatoes halved, and several slices of fresh mozzarella.  Then I simply cracked and dropped one egg in the very center of the pizza.  I sprinkled salt over the egg and black pepper over the entire pizza.

Now for some pictures of the pizza that I forgot to put an egg on, in case you decide to omit the egg.