Hash Brown & Sweet Italian Sausage Breakfast Pizza

The grandkids are here!  That means we're on the go and catching meals on the fly...Science Center and SportsWorks on Saturday, Pirate's game on Sunday (we won!) and hiking McConnell's Mills around the cliffs and crevasses, towering trees and (carefully) along the rapids of the river today.  

If nothing else, we've needed a substantial breakfast to fuel all the activity...and one the kids would eat and enjoy.  What do kids like?  Pizza!  Breakfast pizza it was.  The egg in the picture?  That was only on one of the pizzas....yeah, the kids wouldn't touch a runny fried egg.  The other concession to picky kids was using sweet Italian sausage instead of hot.  Whatever makes them happy...that's what a grandparent's job is, isn't it?  The smiles and hugs are worth every bit of the spoiling!  

Hash Brown & Sweet Italian Sausage Breakfast Pizza

• 1 package hash browns, frozen, the shredded kind - 30 oz. size, thawed
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1/2 pound Italian sausage links, sweet or hot, cooked & sliced diagonally
• 1/2 package shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 slices provolone cheese, cut in half, I like the snoked provolone
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, julienned
• 4 eggs, fried (optional)

Mix the thawed hash brown, parm & olive oil thoroughly.  Pat out and press down firmly onto a 13" round pizza pan that has been sprayed with olive oil. Season with salt & pepper & spray with olive oil.  (I really like my Misto oil sprayer - you can control the quality of the oil you use!)  One other note, this potatoes may seem like too much for one pan - it isn't.  They cook down a LOT!
 

Pre heat the oven to 425.  Bake the crust until browned and crisp on the bottom - about 30 minutes more or less depending on your oven.  Remove the crust, heat the broiler and finish the crust under the broiler being careful just to brown it, not burn it.  Remove and set the oven to 425 again.
 

Sprinkle the mozz evenly over the crust, evenly place the provolone around the pizza in spokes, top with the sausage slices, scatter the tomato and finally the basil. 
 

Bake at 425 until the cheese is melted. 
 

If you like eggs on your breakfast pizza - and I do - you can break them directly onto the pizza and bake them or you can fry them how you like them and put them on when the pizza is done.

Now go spoil those grandkids!