I put this pizza together last week before our book club meeting just to get a quick dinner in before our evening out. Book club on an empty stomach can be a dangerous idea: English majors (who now earn full-time salaries) tend to bring along lots of wine. We had about an hour between getting home and heading out for the evening, so these little pizzas worked out well. The combination of figs, goat cheese, and arugula is classic. Adding prosciutto here wouldn’t hurt either.
When these figs get cooking in the oven at about 400-degrees, they get very soft and start to caramelize. I smeared goat cheese over the pizza dough to serve as the base, and the gooey cheese and caramelized figs running together produced a great flavor.
These are probably the last fresh figs of the season, but I’m looking forward to cooking all the winter vegetables. I’ve received my Thanksgiving food magazines, and there are some tempting-looking recipes in there. I recently started subscribing to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, and just about every recipe in there looks appealing, simple, and very doable. The magazine also has a nice iPad app synced with each issue, so I have all the recipes on hand when I need them.
Ingredients
1/2 batch whole wheat pizza dough (I used Trader Joe’s)
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
6-7 fresh figs
4 oz. soft goat cheese
1/2 cup arugula, washed and roughly chopped
Steps
1) Preheat the oven to 425-degrees. Working on a floured surface, roll out the pizza dough into an even circle. I divided my dough in half and rolled out two mini pizza crusts.
2) Rub in the olive oil over the surface of the rolled out dough. Spread the goat cheese over pizza dough, stopping about 1/2 inch before the edge of the crust.
3) Slice the figs into quarters, then halve each quarter again, splitting the fruit into eighths. Wash the arugula and drain thoroughly. Squeeze with paper towels if needed to remove the excess water. Arrange the arugula in an even layer over the goat cheese base. Sprinkle the fig segments and top with any remaining goat cheese.
4) Transfer the pizzas to a greased baking sheet or pizza stone. Bake in the oven until the crust is well-browned and the figs are cooked through and soft. Allow to cool briefly before serving.
yummm… this pizza looks amazing. I love figs!
Thanks Liz! It turned out well, which is why I’m bummed fig season is almost over!