Behold, The Pizza Omelette
ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT
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The true measure of one's cooking ability is dealing with leftovers. To take what you've already cooked, ordered or brought home and turn it into something entirely new — well, that's what separates those who leave a half-used bunch of parsley to wilt in the fridge, and those who know enough to just grow their own.

Out of all the leftovers one could possibly be left with, however, a cold slice of pizza remains surprisingly intransmutable. Looking into the infinite knowledge of the Internet, it seems that there are far more concise, instructive and smart recipes for reheating pizza than there are actually cooking with leftover slices.

This, I feel, is backwards. There have been many new pizza births, but very little exploration of the pizza afterlife. Leftover pizza has been unjustly labeled as a sad food for lonely folks with few options. Surely we can all do better than just gnawing on a cold, dessicated slice in the nervous light of Sunday. Let's give the leftover pizza the reincarnation it deserves.

Pizza is, at least here in the US, a party food. It's the perfect dish for large gatherings of people. Rounds of bread, sauce and cheese are quick and inexpensive to produce, procure and transport. There's a reason why Chuck E. Cheese served pizza. As such, pizza's place in popular culture is also leftover pizza's downfall. Nothing screams "There WAS a party here" like a score of pizza boxes retaining a slice or two.

In keeping with the party spirit of pizza, this recipe is an acknowledgement of the leftover slice's lowly place amongst popular culture. What does everyone crave after a late night of excess? Eggs, greasy protein, carbs and melty cheese. You might notice that a slice of pizza already has three of those four things. And thus: the Pizza Omelette. Nothing like a little slice of the pizza that bit you.

Everything you need to perform this slice resurrection ritual.   Steve Rousseau

Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 slice of pizza (meat topping preferred)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 eggs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
  • ½ cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese
  • ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • Butter (optional)
  • ¼ cup tomato sauce (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)

A few notes about the ingredients before we move on to the actual making of this thing. Slice choice here is going to play a huge role in the final product — the leftovers you're using should already have the things you'd like to see in an omelette. Topping-heavy pizzas can be unwieldy and messy to eat straight up, but as an ingredient in a pizza omelette they are near perfect. If you like some sort of protein in your omelette, then wait until you have some leftover meat-heavy slices.

You'll also notice that we have additional cheese listed here. Which might seem crazy since pizza already has cheese, but my initial recipe testing found that the end product was just not cheesy enough for my liking. Turns out the cheese on pizza is perfectly portioned for pizza but not pizza omelettes. As for the additional marinara: completely optional. Personally, I like my omelettes to have some sort of finishing condiment, whether that's ketchup or hot sauce. A moderate drizzle of tomato sauce, if you have some lying around, just seems to make sense, along with some parsley.

The technique I use here is Jacque Pepin's country-style omelette. If you've never made an omelette before, I'm going to say that a pizza omelette might not be the best way to figure out how. Ideally, you'd start just with eggs to get the curd-forming and folding technique down before incorporating stuffings. That said, the cool thing about omelettes is that if you goof up they just become a scramble, which is just as tasty. Okay! Let's do this thing.

I'm using two slices here, but you only need one. In fact, I used the extra slice as a plate for my pizza omelette. It was good! Steve Rousseau

1. Take your slice, remove the crust and chop the slice into small pieces. (Feel free to snack on the crust if you'd like, or you can use it as a garnish in the final dish.)

2. Put the olive oil in a medium nonstick skillet or omelette pan over medium-high heat.

3. While the oil heats up, beat the eggs in a bowl until the liquid is uniformly yellow. No strands of egg whites! Add a decent pinch of salt and pepper — probably more than you think you ought to — and half of the chopped fresh basil, oregano and sage.

One thing to watch out for here is the cheese crisping up into a big disc. Be sure to keep stirring to ensure even browning. Steve Rousseau

4. Once the oil starts to shimmer, add the pizza pieces to the pan, stirring occasionally until the bread is nice and toasty and the cheese is melty and golden.

Admit it: this is starting to look pretty good, right? Steve Rousseau

5. Pour the beaten eggs into the pan, quickly grab a spatula and start pulling the cooked edges of the egg mixture towards the center, letting fresh beaten egg take their place. Congrats, this is 90% of making an omelette.

6. Once the omelette has gotten close to — but not at! — your desired dryness, toss the mozzarella and parmesan onto one side of the omelette. If you have one handy, you can throw a cover onto the pan to help the cheese melt a little more, but it's not really necessary.

7. Here's the only tricky part. Use your spatula to free up the sides of the omelette, then shake the pan a little to make sure nothing is sticking. Tip the pan towards the cheese end. If the omelette is free, then one side of the omelette will start to collapse onto the other side like a sandwich. Use your spatula to gently guide it together. No smooshing, or else the cheese or remaining wet egg mixture will leak out. If you want to brown the bottom a little more you could throw a pat of butter into the open space of the pan and let the omelette sizzle for another minute.

8. Get a plate ready, bring the pan to the plate and then gently tip it towards the plate, letting the omelette slide onto the plate like a hospital patient being transferred from a gurney to a bed.

9. Finish with some tomato sauce — heated up in the microwave or on the stove if you're feeling fancy — and the rest of the chopped basil, oregano and sage, and maybe some parsley if that's your thing. And enjoy!

Yes, I know I goofed up the omelette fold. I'm sorry! Steve Rousseau

Now, an important question: Why on earth should anyone do this? If you feel a slight bit of shame eating leftover slices for breakfast, then the pizza omelette is for you. If you're leaving for vacation tomorrow morning and you have leftover pizza tonight, then the pizza omelette is for you. If you are bored with "just" eating leftover slices of pizza, then the pizza omelette is for you.

We don't have to "just" eat leftover slices of pizza. Pizza is nothing more than bread with sauce and cheese on it. There's so much potential there. And it doesn't begin and end with the pizza omelette.

The final dish. Here I used the crusts as garnish and the extra slice as a sort of "bed" to place our omelette on. Steve Rousseau

<p>Steve Rousseau is the Features Editor at Digg.&nbsp;</p>

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