I Heart Fancy Pizza

We eat a lot of pizza around here. It's easy to make, so dinner is on the table pretty fast. It leaves you a lot of wiggle room for creativity as far as toppings are concerned. We never have plain old pepperoni and cheese in our house, unless we bought a frozen pizza in a pinch. I like to have fun with my pizza, and thankfully my husband is up for that sort of thing.

Now, I'm about to gross out about 2/3 of my readers, but the other 1/3 are going to have their interest piqued. (not peaked though, never peaked. tee hee!) I present to you Fig, Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza.

I know it sounds sort of weird, but I promise you, it's good! So good, in fact, that we've had it two nights in a row. If you love the combination of salty and sweet, this is something you have to try.

First, preheat your oven with the pizza stone inside to 500 degrees for about 40 minutes. You want it nice and hot.

Just spread your pizza dough out on a sheet of parchment. If you're organized and can plan ahead, I highly recommend Pioneer Woman's recipe. If you're a slacker like me and 5:00 finds you wondering what is for dinner, you can buy ready made pizza dough. I like the kind they sell at Fresh and Easy, but I won't say I've never used Pillsbury in an absolute pinch.

For shame.

Pop the crust into the oven, parchment paper and all (I like to just pick it up and plop it right on the stone; my husband slides the paper off the rack onto the stone) into the oven for three minutes. No toppings yet, and just for three minutes. This prevents you from having that weird, soggy undercooked area in the middle that likes to happen sometimes. You also get a slightly crisper, chewier crust this way.

Take it out and brush a little bit of olive oil on it. I actually had too much here and had to blot some off with a paper towel. Whoops!

Plop a few large spoonfuls (I think I used about 4 tablespoons) of fig spread onto the pizza and spread it out as evenly as you can. I bought this at Whole Foods and it's just figs, sugar, lemon juice, and water. Lovely ingredients!

Lay a few slices of prosciutto on top of the fig spread. Prosciutto is very thin, so just kind of make an even layer of it over the whole thing.

Next, chiffonade some fresh arugula. I picked mine from my garden. I have a TON, and that's part of what inspired me to make this! I have to use it up before it bolts. Spread a layer of that on there too. It will look like a lot, but trust me, it cooks down quite a bit.

Next, a sprinkling of Mozzarella cheese. Really, it's better to grate your own, but I was at the store already and it was there and I'm lazy.

Finally, grate a bit of Parmesan over the top. YUM!

Pop it back onto your hot stone for another eight to ten minutes. You want the cheese and the crust to just start to brown.

See how the arugula cooked down? I'm guessing that if it wasn't for all the cheese, this would be a pretty healthy option. You could make it on a whole wheat crust if you weren't a total fat kid like I am .

This is really good stuff!