Email
PrintDue Amici's breakfast pizza
August is arguably the best month to eat fresh produce in Central Ohio. Variety abounds: beans, beets, berries, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, leeks, peaches, peppers and potatoes. This also is the month when it pays to know someone with a garden. It’s tomato time.
Tomatoes are remarkably perishable, so the ones typically found off-season are picked far away when green and ripen after they are shipped. This greatly affects the flavor. To ensure that you are buying the freshest tomatoes, look for plump ones with taut skin and bold color. They should feel heavy in comparison to their size and have a noticeable aroma.
Avoid tomatoes with wrinkled or split skin, bruising or other discoloration. Ripe tomatoes only keep for a few days, but it’s OK to buy those that aren’t fully ripe—just keep them inside for a few days at a cool room temperature.
Tomatoes usually are eaten raw. They also, however, can be grilled, stuffed and roasted, or made into a delicious cold soup.
(Tip: To cut a tomato like a professional, cut an “X” into the bottom of the tomato with a knife, dunk it in boiling water for 20 seconds, place it in ice water to chill, peel by pulling at the “X,” cut out the core, slice in half and squeeze out the seeds and juice. Then chop or dice per the recipe.)
Executive chef Derek Michael of Due Amici, 67 E. Gay St., has contributed his recipe for breakfast pizza with oven-roasted tomatoes.
—Christie Robb
Due Amici’s breakfast pizza (yields one 10-inch pizza)
1 packet of dough (available at area grocery stores)
2 ounces pizza sauce
3 ounces shredded provolone cheese
3 ounces chopped sausage patty (Michael recommends Rife’s Market, 1417 W. Fifth Ave.)
1 ounce chopped bacon
1 fried egg
6 oven-roasted tomatoes
To roast the tomatoes: Cut into thick slices and spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Bake for two hours at 250 degrees.
To make the pizza: Stretch dough to 10 inches. Spread pizza sauce evenly over the dough to the edge. Evenly sprinkle provolone cheese over sauce. Scatter chopped sausage and bacon over cheese. Scatter oven-roasted tomatoes over sausage and bacon. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes (until the cheese is melted). Top with fried egg.
