Carbonara Pizza

I love this pizza. I love its thin crust, it's crispy bits of prosciutto, it's little bits of green onion. I love it runny egg and all. I love this pizza so much, that I want to make it Saturday night for dinner, eat the leftovers for breakfast Sunday morning, and then make it again with the remaining pizza dough Monday night.

Oh wait, I already did that.

Did I mention that I've also been trying to eat healthier lately? I'm sure a 3-day pizza diet isn't included in that. But at least we shared the pizza on Monday with my parents, which meant no leftovers to snack on, and we ate it with salad, see?

Salad negates bad diet choices, correct? Yeah, I thought so.

Make this pizza. It's yum. And totally worth a 3-day pizza binge.

Carbonara Pizza
Adapted from Sunset, February 2010

Pizza Dough
I used my favorite pizza dough recipe here
Note: this recipe makes enough dough for six pizzas, extra dough can be refrigerated for two days, or frozen for up to 3 months.

Carbonara Topping
8 or 9 green onions, chopped
9 ounces coarsely chopped prosciutto
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated pecorino romano
Freshly ground black pepper
9 tablespoons heavy cream
3 eggs

If following the pizza dough recipe above, prepare dough, and let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours for the final rise.

Heat a pizza stone or baking sheet on lowest rack of oven at 550° (or as high as oven will go), at least 30 minutes (I like to let mine preheat an hour if possible).

Once dough and oven are ready, working with one dough ball at a time (keeping the rest covered), begin to assemble each pizza. Here are some helpful pizza dough shaping instructions:

To stretch dough into an 11- to 12-in. circle, first tap down the center of the ball with your fingertips to gently deflate it. Next, push it outward from the center with your fingertips. Then pick up the dough circle and, holding it under the rim, turn it like a steering wheel, letting the gravity of the dough help it stretch. Drape the dough over the backs of your hands and gently stretch outward, rotating periodically. Flop the stretched dough down onto the pizza peel.

Spread about 1/2 cup pecorino evenly over dough. Top with a third of green onions, then a third of the prosciutto. Grind on some pepper and drizzle with 3 tbsp. cream. Give the peel a good shake every few seconds to keep dough from sticking.

Using peel or baking sheet, slide pizza onto preheated pizza stone. Bake 2 minutes, then remove from oven with pizza peel or baking sheet, crack an egg onto center, gently push back into oven, and bake 3-4 minutes more. Just before serving, drag a knife through the egg to spread it around.

Repeat with 2 dough balls and remaining toppings.