Dishing With Janet: A Different Sort of Pizza

It's been such a long time since I did any foodie blogging but I have been trying some new things in the kitchen and wanted to start posting them...

First up an excellent pizza with an unusual cast of characters...

My recipe was based on this one from Epicurious, I was searching for a savory recipe with fresh figs (which was more challenging than I thought.) Around here you can only get good fresh figs from the regular grocery store for about 3 weeks of the year. They happen to be 1/2 off at Publix this week in case you have a hankering to re-create my creation!

You'll need this cast of characters...(I was so psyched I actually remembered to take this photo for once!)

Not pictured are some caramelized onions (which was not in the original recipe but a couple of recipe comments suggested adding them and I'm glad I did.)

So your first step is to caramelize your onion (this is just one large onion sliced and then cooked for approx. 45 mins on low in a little olive oil.)

The original recipe called for 2 cups of some kind of blue cheese but I only had about 3/4 a cup so I subbed in some other cheeses (goat and fontina) that I had on hand for the total of 2 cups.

So after your onions are done, go ahead and cut up your prosciutto and figs (which will marinate for about 15 mins in 1 Tablespoon of the balsamic.)

Lightly flour your work surface and roll out of the pizza dough to some random shape that fits on the pan you want to use (either round or this lovely rectangular/oval shape I have here.)

Sprinkle some cornmeal on your pizza pan and crank your oven to 450 degrees.

Carefully transfer the dough to the pan (note there is a reason there is no picture of this step, let's just say there was some re-rolling after the pizza was dropped on the stovetop.)

Once your pizza is on the pan brush the dough lightly with some olive oil and then add the cheeses and bake for between 12-15 mins. It really depends on your oven. You want your pizza to be about 90% done.

Pull out the cheese-y dough and add the onion, strips of prosciutto and the fig slices (this is what it looks like before you put it in for the second baking.)

Pop it back in for around 2 mins, you want to soften the figs and slightly crisp the prosciutto. While it is cooking use the bowl that the figs and balsamic marinated in and add one more tablespoon of balsamic and about the same amount of olive oil and whisk. Toss this dressing with your arugula in a large bowl (I'm not sure I used the full 8 cups the recipe called for-Leslie was pretty skeptical about the greens on the pizza.)

By now your pizza should be done, pull it out to rest and slice and top with the arugula salad on each plate.