Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula

After last week's Bruschetta Pizza you would think my pizza craving would have been satisfied.

Well, if that's what you thought, you clearly don't know me so well.

Pizza Every Day would probably be my platform if I were running for president.  I am a pro at justifying pizza as a healthy meal (it hits 3 food important food groups!)  It's one of the great comfort foods of our time.  Yeah, I pretty much love the stuff.

This version is similar to a flatbread (obviously just another, fancier, name for pizza) we had at Cru Cellars, our local wine bar just down the street (within stumbling distance, I like to say).  Theirs had bleu cheese where this one uses mozzarella and parmesan.  Theirs was a rectangle, this a circle.  To-may-to, to-mah-to.  And this is a Pioneer Woman recipe, so you know it's going to be good.

The original recipe makes one large pizza but I roughly halved it to use the remainder of the Trader Joe's pizza dough I had in the refrigerator and made two small pizzas out of it.  The recipe can be doubled for a full 1 pound ball of pizza dough if serving more than 4.

sauced...

cheesed...

baked...

topped....

Served.

I also think this would make a nice appetizer if you formed it in the shape of a long, thin rectangle and sliced it crosswise into strips, squares or triangles.

Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula
serves 3-4
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

1/2 of a 1 lb ball of prepared pizza dough
2-3 Tablespoons fig butter (I used Trader Joe's, or fig jam, or fig spread)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/4 lb shaved or thinly sliced Prosciutto
2 large handfulls arugula, washed and dried
2 Tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese


Preheat oven to 450 degrees for at least 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, let refrigerated pizza dough sit out at room temperature for 20 minutes.  Then, roll the dough out into a thin circle about 1/4-1/3" thick on a floured surface, or alternately make two "personal size" pizzas.  Transfer the pizza dough onto a lightly oiled, rimless baking sheet.

Spread the fig butter across the pizza dough in a thin, even layer.  Then, evenly distribute the mozzarella cheese over the fig butter and sprinkle on a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper.  Transfer the baking sheet into the preheated oven and bake 10-15 minutes (or up to 20 minutes, depending on thickness of your pizza crust) until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.

Remove the pizza from the oven and immediately top the hot pizza with the slices of Prosciutto.  Before serving, top the pizza with the arugula and the shredded parmesan cheese.  Cut into wedges, slices or squares and serve warm.

For 1/2 pound of pizza dough, this should make 1 medium pizza or two "personal" pizzas.  This will serve 2 very hungry individuals or 3-4 normal people.

What are your favorite pizza toppings?  What was the best pizza pie you ever had?  


I generally go for the veggie pizza - loaded up with onions, bell peppers, olives, mushrooms but I wouldn't turn down a slice with some italian sausage thrown on there too.

The best pizza I ever had was on my honeymoon in Napa at a place called Azzurro.  I had the Salciccia  which was a thin, crisp, ever-so-slightly-charred crust with fennel sausage, onion, mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce.  Perfecto!