Breakfast Calzones for an Italian-Inspired Christmas Morning
Stuffed with eggs, bacon, sausage, and plenty of cheese, this hearty breakfast calzone makes for an extra special holiday brunch!
Winter weekends — and especially holiday weekends — are for hearty late breakfasts made with a bit of extra care. We’ve got just the ticket if you’re looking for something different to serve this year. Today, Chef Daniel at Ophelia’s Pizza + Bar in Nashville, TN, shares an Italian breakfast recipe that his family enjoyed every year on Christmas morning.
My father was a chef when I was growing up, so he was obviously the family cook. On Christmas, he would make breakfast calzones. They wouldn’t always be the same each year, but one would always have bacon and sausage in it. That was our favorite, although they were all delicious.
My family would host a portion of our particularly large family — my grandparents being there was always special since my grandmother’s birthday is on Christmas. She always looked forward to the calzones to start her birthday off right. My sister and I would always wake up in the middle of the night — after Santa had visited — to go sleep next to the Christmas tree on a couple of blankets.
We would wake up to my dad banging around the kitchen with barely any lights on, getting prepped for breakfast. We would assist him, helping him fill the calzones or scramble the eggs. We were equally as excited for the breakfast calzones as we were to open presents together!
“Don’t overcook the eggs; they will cook more in the calzone, I promise,” Dad always said. I can still hear his voice each morning, prepping for brunch service and getting the eggs ready for calzones.
Breakfast Calzone
Ingredients
- 200 grams pizza dough (7 ounces)
- 2 ounces sour cream
- 2 tbsp shredded mozzarella
- 2 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tbsp fior di latte or fresh mozzarella cheese
- 4-6 ounces chopped sausage patty
- 2-3 slices bacon crumbles
- 3 eggs scrambled
- Olive oil
- 1 pinch Maldon salt
- 1 pinch fresh parsley
- 1 pinch grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°.
- Crack the eggs into a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth and combined.
- In a small skillet, add some butter to lightly coat the pan. Bring to medium heat.
- Pour the eggs into the skillet, scramble the eggs until they are 80-85% done, salt lightly. (They will be very soft and somewhat wet and will finish cooking when baking the calzone).
- Roll out the 200-gram dough to an approximate 8-inch circle.
- Spread the crema acida evenly, leaving .5 inches around the perimeter to crimp at the end.
- Sprinkle the mozzarella and cheddar evenly in the same manner.
- Add the cut sausage, crumbled bacon, and scrambled eggs to one half of the dough.
- Top it with fior di latte (or fresh mozzarella cheese).
- Once completed, take the dough without the filling and fold it over the meat and eggs.
- Crimp the dough together by folding the bottom side of the dough over the top side, pinching the dough to seal it.
- Brush the dough with olive oil.
- With kitchen scissors, cut 3 evenly spaced, 1-inch slits in the center of the dough to allow heat to escape while baking.
- Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, garnish with Parmesan and parsley.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Thank you, Chef Daniel! Photography provided by Ophelia’s Pizza + Bar.
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