Experiments in Egg Pizza

Once every so often I feel like staying in and catching up on shows on a Friday night. Is this boring and antisocial? Most likely.  But to me, coziness is next to godliness.

Ok  so that is probably blasphemous, but don’t we all crave chill, cozy nights where we can get into pajama pants at 6 pm, get reacquainted with our tv and not have to venture outside again till tomorrow comes ?

These kind of nights practically demand pizza and I like to experiment. Planning new, inventive and scrumptious pizzas is satisfying in more ways than one. Wink.

We usually make our tried and true, Goat Cheese, Tomato, Crispy Garlicky Kale and Caramelized Onion pizza as a fall back in case our experiment goes awry. I’m telling you, that pizza is solid. We use Trader Joe’s dough (white, herbed or wheat) and bake it at 425 with some olive oil, salt and black pepper for a few minutes to make sure it gets nice and crispy and not doughy from all the toppings we plan to pile on.

Add a can of drained chunky tomatoes, marinara sauce and goat cheese and put it back in the oven. Saute some ripped up kale with garlic bits, olive oil , salt and pepper. Once the goat cheese melts a bit, take out the pizza and pile on the kale and caramelized onions. Throw it back in the oven for enough time to get the crust to desired crustiness and to let the  flavors meld into each other.

Last Friday we tried to make an egg pizza. We tried a delicious one at Nellcote a few weeks ago and got inspired.

We started out baking the white crust for about 7 minutes and also roasting as much garlic as you can stand with olive oil, salt and pepper for about 40 minutes until light brown and very mushy. If you want some more flavor add in some rosemary or other herbs.

This roasted caramelized garlic goodness will be your sauce. Spread it on the pizza dough and add some shaved, sharp cheese. We used Black Pepper Toscano cheese from Trader Joe’s ( are you sensing a theme here?) and threw it all over the pizza. Bake that until the cheese is melted, runny and probably igniting your salivary glands just by looking at it. Toss a few handfuls of arugula on there. Note, it will severely wilt so be generous.

Now, as I mentioned earlier : this is an experiment! I have yet to perfect the amount of time to just barely cook the egg so its yolk spreads its buttery richness into every cranny of the pizza and you are left to mop up whatever sticks to the plate with the last morsel of crust. Once the arugula wilts into the cheese a bit, crack 2 eggs on top. We kept our eye on the eggs and the whites looked soupy for about 4 minutes, so we tested it a few times. Once we took it out after about 5 and 1/2 minutes , it was clear that the yolk had cooked a bit more then we’d like and it was not of desired runniness.

No matter! It was still delectable and I’m sure there will be plenty of time in the future to experiment with egg pizzas. Challenge accepted!

Bang Bang Pie

“Bang Bang he shot me down, Bang Bang I hit the ground , Bang Bang my baby shot me dowwwwnnnnn”

I always get that song from Kill Bill stuck in my head after visiting Bang Bang Pie, for obvious reasons. It is a deadly place. The glorious varieties of pie change daily. Their very names will seduce you. The sugar rush afterwards will most assuredly  incapacitate you. And it is so worth it.

Bang Bang Pie is in Logan Square and actually started as a food truck. The owner’s Kickstarter campaign raised over $10,000 to fund their storefront. The place is charming and rustic, with brick walls, clean hardwoods floors and flashes of bright, circus red scattered around. The baking is done right behind the cashier so you can see the various stages of the pies. They usually carry a fruit, a cream and a chocolate pie which you can purchase by the slice for $5 or the whole pie for $26.

They also carry biscuits that are extraordinarily buttery inside, with a nice, crispy crust. You can choose from a few different quirky spreads to lather on top. But I’m warning you, this place is RICH. Its hard to choose between a biscuit and a slice of pie, but it is difficult to finish if you choose both. Definitely get a cup of their in-house roasted coffee to offset the insane sugar rush you are about to have.

I love small , independent businesses that obviously love and take pride in their product.  This place does pie dreamily. Visit and follow them on twitter and prepare to start salivating.

Bang Bang Pie