Saturday, November 10, 2012

Show Stoppin' Blue Cheese, Prosciutto, Apricot and Arugula Pizza

This pizza is unbelievable! I was reminded of its glory yesterday when my bestie called to get the ingredients for it. She is a little bit of a weinie with food. Her husband often gets mad at her because when he tries to get her to eat something a little more "exotic" and she refuses, he says, "Ugh, I know that you would eat it if Kristi offered it to you."

This pizza is one of these dishes. It sounds like something that you wouldn't want to eat, then you eat it, you can't stop sighing while eating it and then it becomes your go-to "fancy dinner for friends" meal.

I like to let my dough rise at least a few hours in advance, overnight is even better[I used my go-to recipe http://sauceonthewall.blogspot.com/2012/04/tzatziki-and-pitammm-mmmmm.html. It yields enough for about 3, thin-crust 12 inch pizzas and is probably a little over a pound of dough], heat up my pizza stone and pound out 2-3 of these pizzas and let my guests, and myself, grab a slice from each pizza as they come out of the oven.

Blue Cheese, Prosciutto, Apricot and Arugula Pizza
*Yields 2, 12 inch pizzas 
1 lb. of room temperature pizza dough
6 T of apricot preserves
4 oz. of crumbled blue cheese
Approximately 10 slices of thinly sliced prosciutto [more or less is fine, cooked bacon crumbles would be delicious too], roughly chopped
2 heaping handfuls of baby arugula

Preheat the oven, and pizza stone if using, to 500 degrees.

Divide the dough in two and roll out each section of dough into a rough circle...rustic pizza shapes are just fine!

I have a cool pizza peel, so I assembled my pizzas one at a time on the peel, sprinkling a little bit of cornmeal on the peel before placing the dough on top to aid the pizza sliding off of the peel onto the pizza stone.

Spread half of the apricot preserves on each pizza.

 Sprinkle half of the blue cheese crumbles over the thin layer of apricot preserves.  Don't worry, the cheese layer will look very scant but it melts into a beautiful "sauce" with the preserves.


Place your pizza on the pizza stone and cook just until the cheese had melted, approximately 4-5 minutes. After the cheese has slightly melted, sprinkle the chopped prosciutto on the pizza and let cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.


Remove the pizza from the oven, sprinkle with a handful of arugula, slice and enjoy while hot!




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