If you happened to be a student in elementary or middle school in the late ’80s and early ’90s, you know that there was no more-conveted cafeteria offering back then than breakfast for lunch. Greasy French toast sticks, watery eggs and a flat, circular sausage topped by all the fake maple syrup you could ask for — this was a meal that was not to be missed when it was served on a monthly or, much better, bi-monthly basis.
When you grow older, your tastebuds change, and instead of craving breakfast at lunchtime, it seems far more natural to have a hankering for heartier midday fare in the hours before noon, especially if you were awake past the midnight hour the evening before. Hence, an enlarged interest in brunch and its accompanying crossover dishes such as eggs in purgatory, the crunchy gentleman and tostada benedict that combine both sweet and savory elements to please the palate and tickle the tastebuds earlier in the day than normal.
With a menu built around fresh, clean, seasonal ingredients, New Jersey eatery Over Easy Kitchen has a mix of dishes that skew toward both breakfast and lunch. Over Easy’s fancy burrata pie, their take on a breakfast pizza, lands somewhere in the middle.
Made with a trio of other cheeses (mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan) in addition to the burrata, the decadent breakfast pizza comes topped with lighter elements including arugula, tomatoes and red onion as well as heavier additions such as prosciutto and sunnyside-up eggs. It was originally introduced as a special, but Over Easy founder Demetri Rexinis made the fancy burrata pie a permanent addition to the menu at the restaurant’s Fair Haven location.
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“One of the signature items on our regular menu is the fancy burrata. We had the idea to just take one of our top items and convert it into a pizza,” Rexinis tells InsideHook. “We’d seen breakfast pizzas all over social media and TikTok like everybody else. We wanted to separate ourselves by using the ingredients from our fancy burrata [two poached eggs, fresh burrata cheese over arugula, avocado, tomatoes, red onions and balsamic on grilled sourdough bread topped with pesto aioli] and incorporate them into a pie.”
A New Jersey eatery that serves a pork roll instead of a Taylor ham but doesn’t take the longstanding debate too seriously, Over Easy is dedicated to making sure all of its offerings appeal to the eye as well as the stomach. (“Guests who are told we have pork rolls after they ask for Taylor Ham kinda look at us sideways, but I’m from Greece so I can’t give you too much insight on that,” Rexinis says.)
“In this day and age, the phone always has to eat first. That’s part of our brand. We wanted to make sure that this pie follows that as well,” Rexinis says. “It’s the perfect brunch item and has been received very well. It almost fits the identity of what brunch is. It lives in the middle of both worlds. It looks heavy with all the ingredients on top, but it’s actually a light pie. It’s not your normal pizza.”
Nope. It’s breakfast. Get some.
Over Easy’s Fancy Burrata Pie
Prep Time: 80 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Servings: 1 pizza
Ingredients
- Ingredients for the dough
- 2 cups semolina flour
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 packet instant yeast
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 3/4 cups warm water
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- Ingredients for the pizza
- 8 oz. sliced fresh mozzarella
- 1/3 cup whole milk ricotta
- 1/3 cup greated parmigiano reggiano
- 1 ball of fresh burrata
- 2 oz. sliced prosciutto di Parma
- 2-3 eggs
- 1 cup arugula
- 3-4 grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 oz. thin sliced red onion
- Drizzle of pesto oil
- Drizzle of balsamic reduction
Directions
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For the dough
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Combine flour, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine. While the mixer is running, add the water and 1 tbsp. of olive oil, and mix until dough forms into a ball. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth, firm ball.
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Grease a large bowl with a tsp. of olive oil, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and move it to a warm area to rest until it doubles in size. Place the dough into a lightly floured surface and stretch the dough out to form your crust.
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For the pizza
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees and prebake dough on a pizza stone for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with olive oil. Place slices of fresh mozzarella and scoops of ricotta evenly around the crust. Sprinkle with grated parmigiano reggiano.
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Top with 2-3 cracked whole eggs. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly and egg whites are cooked through. Remove from oven and spread remaining toppings evenly on pizza. Finish with a drizzle of pesto aioli and balsamic vinegar.
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