Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza

Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is my knockoff of the Uova Pizza da Barbuzzo Restaurant in Philadelphia. Barbuzzo is one of my favorite restaurants in Philly, and the Uova Pizza is one of my favorite pizzas. They don’t make it year ‘round though; come springtime, quite seasonably reasonably, Brussels leaves give way to shave asparagus, much to my consternation. If you aren’t lucky enough to live in Philly, where you can go out for this Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza, now you can make it at home so you’ll know what you’re missing, and why you need to come visit Philly ASAP. And you should absolutely let me know how close my Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is to the original. Of course, I don’t have a wood fire pizza oven, (dreams, right?) but with a pizza stone and a very hot oven you can get kind of close. But the sauce, well, let’s just say I think I nailed it with my guancial béchamel sauce. Mostly, this Runny Guanciale Béchamel Runny Egg Pizza is a really fun project that makes you appreciate all the work that went into the original and reinforces making a reservation at Barbuzzo.

Print Recipe

Runny Egg Pizza (Guanciale Béchamel)

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Author: Barrett Bridenhagen

Ingredients

• 4 ounces guanciale*
• 1 ½ pounds Brussels sprouts leaves
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper ¼ teaspoon each
• 4 ounces shredded mozzarella
• 1 ounce grated asiago
• 1 homemade pizza crust
• 3 eggs
• truffle salt or oil optional

guanciale béchamel

• 2 tablespoons guanciale fat
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 ounce best parm you can afford
• 1 cup milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

• Make the crust. While it’s rising, preheat oven to 425° F. Cut the leaves off of the Brussels Spouts.
• The best way to do this is to cut a little of the base off, peel the leaves back and repeat.
• This is an easier task if you start with larger sprouts. When they get very small and light green, I stop removing the leaves and reserve them for another purpose.
• When you you’re your leaves scattered on a baking sheet, lightly toss them in olive oil and a little salt and pepper.
• Roast for 10 minutes tossing halfway through. When starting to char, remove and reserve. You want to be a little on the underdone side, because they’ll be back on top of the pizza at the end for a few more minutes. If you do over cook them a bit at this step, don’t put them on the pizza until it’s completely finished. Now, dice the guanciale.
• You want the pieces to be about ¼- inch square. Heat a deep frying pan to medium. Cook the guanciale until its very golden brown and crisp.
• Remove to a paper towel and reserve the fat.
• Try not to eat all of the lardons. Put two tablespoons of the guanciale fat in the same frying pan. Reserve the rest for another use. Whisk in the flour and cook until bubbling.
• Add the salt and pepper. Whisk in the milk in 2-3 additions. When the sauce is smooth and fairly thin, add the grated parmigiana reggiano.
• Whisk until fully blended. Turn off heat. Preheat to 550° F (or as high as your oven will go). When your crust is fully prepared, roll it out and place it on a corn meal dusted pizza stone or upside down cookie sheet. Roll in the edges. Coat crust in the béchamel cheese sauce. Top with the mozzarella and asiago. Add the guanciale.
• Bake for 10- 15 minutes. When cheese is starting to brown remove from oven. Top with Brussels sprout leaves.
• Add eggs evenly spaced.
• Bake an additional 3 - 5 minutes. (The egg won’t necessarily look done to your eye. It is. You want the yolk runny, so don’t overcook). If you’re using the truffle salt or truffle oil drizzle a little on just the egg now.
• Let rest 5 minutes. Cut down the eggs into sixths so the each piece gets some of the egg.
• If you make smaller pizzas (8 inches or so) you can just use one egg and place it in the center. Dig in, and enjoy sopping up the extra yolk with the crust. So. So. Good.

Notes

A little cheerleading before you start… This is another one of those recipes that has lots of steps, but none of them are very hard. Just break it down into parts. Crust. While rising, prep leaves and sauté guanciale. While roasting, make béchamel. I promise it’s no big deal, and it’s a good group cooking project because you can easily divide up the tasks.