Leek, Lardon, and Lemon Pizza

By cristinasciarra • January 5, 2013 • 0 Comments

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Author Notes: This pizza is flammkuchen with a bit of a twist. It's what I'm hoping will materialize in front of me as I drink cold coffee and procrastinate writing an essay that badly needs to be written today, not tomorrow, but today. You can use whatever pizza dough you like; I usually buy mine from the local pizza parlor. Feel free to play around with the cheese, lemon zest, and red pepper flake quantities, according to your personal tastes. - cristinasciarra

Makes 2 "personal" sized pizzas, or 1 large

1/3 pound of bacon
2 medium leeks
sea salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon zest
pizza dough
1/2 cup crème fraîche
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1-3 eggs

Heat the oven to 500F. If you have a pizza stone, move it to the oven a full hour before cooking, to heat up. If you are using a baking sheet, move it to the oven 30 minutes before cooking. Either way, you want to cook the pizza at the base of the oven.
Stack up your bacon, and cut it into lardons (or little matchsticks). Heat a wide pan (cast iron, if you’ve got one) over medium heat. When it’s warm, add the bacon. Cook the lardons until they are half-way to crispy, about 5 minutes. (The bacon will cook more in the oven, so don’t overdo it on the stovetop.) Move the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
Quarter and clean the leeks. Slice the white/light green parts thinly. Once the bacon is out of the pan, you can add the leeks to it; the bacon fat will serve as a lovely lubricant. Cook the leeks until translucent, 5-10 minutes. Stir in a pinch of salt, and the lemon juice.
Finely grate the cheese, and zest the lemon.
It's time to build the pizza: spread on the crème fraîche. Next, evenly scatter the lardons and leeks over the face of the pizza. Distribute the grated cheese, the lemon zest, and the red pepper flakes.
Just before moving the pizza to the oven, crack on the egg(s). (1 egg per personal pizza, or up to 3 eggs on a large.)
Cook the pizza for 3-5 minutes, or until it’s bubbling and the crust is just past golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and serve right away, very hot.