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I saw a recipe for fresh fig pizza with blue cheese in Vegetarian Times years ago. I have a huge collection of recipes I have torn out of magazines and newspapers, printed from online, etc etc over the years. These are recipes that have given me inspiration on creating new flavors and dishes. Every time I move, which seems to have been quite a few times over these past few years, I go through the box and get rid of the ones I will never make or have lost their lustor.

This recipe has stuck with me over the years and I finally decided to try my version of it. As you know from my recent post about figs, fresh figs are finally in season and so I have been eating quite a lot of them! Since Roberto is always looking for a good ITALIAN pizza crust – (no New York style crust, here)– to no avail yet in a restaurant, we have been trying to devise our own. The secret to a great Italian pizza crust is of course the high temperatures in which they are quickly cooked. So I decided to finish the pizzas by grilling them off at the end, in a 600 F grill to get it to the right consistency. It definitely got the Roman’s seal of approval. I also drizzled the pizzas with olive oil and balsamic vinegar when they came out of the grill to give it a little something extra!
Buon Appetito!

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INGREDIENTS:

1 store bought pizza crust – -I divided it into 3 pieces for 3 individual pizzas
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
5 0z blue cheese, crumbled
5 ripe figs cut into pieces
3 TBS fig preserves – leftover from the DB Bagels challenge
2 sprigs fresh sage, julienned
arugala to top
salt & pepper to taste

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 500 F and preheat grill. Form the pizza crusts. Place on a well oiled cookie sheet and place in a 500 F oven for about 5 minutes. Remove crusts. Spread 1/3 of fig preserves on each crust. Sprinkle with blue cheese, figs and sage, salt and pepper. Once the grill is about 600 F, place pizzas on the grill, close lid and bake for about 3 minutes. Remove pizzas from grill, top wit arugala and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic.

Enjoy with a nice glass of Shiraz!