Proscuitto Arugula Fig Pizza

It’s cold and windy outside.  You have very little food in your fridge and your microwave is broken.  You have the beginning of a cold, you’re still sleep deprived from the holidays.  So, what’s for dinner?

The little voice in my head tells me that I’m suppose to want soup.  I should want to just stroll into Whole Foods, pick up some pre-made and already hot soup, and call it a night.

No, instead, I decided I’d forge on with my “resolution” to cook more, eat out less, try new recipes, and blog more.  (I am not a fan of new year’s resolutions – it seems like I’m just setting myself up for failure).

With some Trader Joe’s pizza dough in the freezer, fig jam in the pantry, and proscuitto from the holidays, I was pretty excited to stumble upon a Fig Proscuitto Pizza with Arugula recipe from the Pioneer Woman for some inspiration.  I’d recently started making my own pizza dough, but in effort to clean out the freezer, I found some extra Trader Joe’s dough (who doesn’t love a 99 cent item) just begging to be used.

Less then 30 minutes from walking in the door, I was eating this sweet-salty deliciousness straight out of the oven.  I may be sick, but my taste buds are still fully functioning!  This would work great as an appetizer or for anyone who enjoys the sweet and savory combination (toffee nuts, kettle corn, anyone?).

I added some ricotta cheese (fat free is not worth it, get the good stuff) and skipped the parmesan from the original recipe.  But, especially with pizza, I think it’s easy to improvise and use anything that you have on hand.

Proscuitto Arugula Fig Pizza

Prep Time: 5 Minutes     —     Cook Time: 15 Minutes     —     Servings: 8

Ingredients

• Pizza dough (Trader Joes, or make your own)
• 4 T fig jam
• 2 balls of fresh mozzarella
• 3 T ricotta
• 6-8 slices of prosciutto
• 1 handful of arugula
• salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions

Preheat oven to 450.

Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Stretch or roll out pizza dough on the baking sheet.  Bake in 450 oven for approximately 5 minutes or until dough is just slightly dry to touch.

Remove dough from oven.  Spread fig jam on pizza dough.  Slice mozzarella into thin slices, approximately 1/8 of an inch.  Place slices of mozzarella on pizza dough.  Drop teaspoon size scoops of ricotta cheese between slices of mozzarella.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Return to oven for 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Remove pizza from oven.  Immediately top with slices of prosciutto.  Sprinkle arugula across pizza.   Slice to eat and serve hot.