This past spring, the brass group of our community built us an amazing outdoor kitchen and wood fire oven inspired by the one we have at Villa Via Sacra, our mission house in Barga, Italy.  All summer long and even now into the colder months of fall, we’ve been able to fire up the oven and make one of our favorite foods, amongst other things, pizza!

When I served at Villa Via Sacra, I invented a Tuscan pizza of gorgonzola and prosciutto with fig jam that we had made from our gorgeous fig tree.  It was delicious – almost like dessert – and we quickly adopted it as one of our “house pizzas”.  This past weekend, we hosted a men’s retreat at our community, so I thought it might be fun to make some adaptions to this recipe and really perfect it – once and for all.  I am so happy with the results!  Thin crust pizza with a mixture of sweet and salty ingredients topped with a salad of crisp nutty arugula that’s been tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette.  Heaven begins here!  It doesn’t get much better than this!  Now that figs are readily available in the market (get green fresh ones, not dried) and certainly are a treat to many, you just might want to fire up your oven and give this a try.

Andiamo mangiare!

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Prosciutto, Fig and Gorgonzola Pizza with Arugula Salad

SERVINGS 4-6 CHANGE SERVING SIZE

COOK TIME 5minutes

PREP TIME 20minutes

READY IN 4hours

Ingredients

• Dough Ingredients:
• 1.5 cup water warm, divided
• 1 teaspoon yeast active, dry
• 4 cups flour (or alternate Tipo ”00″ Pizza flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Drizzle olive oil
• Toppings:
• 2 cups gorgonzola crumbled
• 8 green figs fresh, cut into rounds down the fig
• 16 thin slices proscuitto
• 1/2 jar fig jam or preserves
• 1 cup mascarpone cheese (apprx. ¼ cup or less on each pizza)
• 1 container arugula fresh
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar aged
• salt
• black pepper

Instructions

Dough:

1. Place ¼ cup very warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes or until yeast is hydrated and creamy (This will allow the yeast to be quickly absorbed by the flour).
2. Place flour, salt, yeast mixture, and remaining water in mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook.
3. Mix on low speed for 2 minutes to combine. If the dough appears too wet and sticky and is not combining, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time while mixing until dough takes on a “shaggy” appearance.
4. Drizzle with oil and mix for 2 minutes more. Dough should form a smooth ball and clear the sides of the bowl.
5. Turn mixer off, cover top of bowl with plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.
6. Resume mixing on medium low speed for 3 minutes, or until dough forms a smooth ball, clearing sides of bowl.
7. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
8. Let sit at room temperature for 2 ½ hours. It will double in size. Dough may be used immediately.

Instructions for Assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees or highest setting
2. Cut dough into 4 – 8 oz. balls
3. Dust both sides of dough with flour and roll out to make a thin crust
4. Drizzle with Olive oil
5. Sprinkle generously with Gorgonzola
6. Place into a wood fire oven (or regular preheated oven – preferably on a pizza stone)until the crust is starting to golden
7. Remove from oven and quickly distribute on top of the pizza: sliced fresh figs, cover with slices of prosciutto and dot with fig jam and mascarpone cheese – don’t get too heavy on any one ingredient or your end result will be soggy and the individual flavors will be lost.
8. Drizzle with olive oil
9. Place back into oven for about another minute – watch carefully
10. Meanwhile, dress a bunch of fresh arugula with an aged balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper
11. Once out of oven, top with the dressed arugula, slice and enjoy!