Fig and Goat's Cheese Pizza

This was a deceptively simple pizza to make, especially for the flavours that you get at the end. One of my friends gave me some figs from her garden, the last of the crop and I ate most of them just as they were and made pizza out of a couple! This was a truly delicious pizza, I was expecting it to be dry without any sauce but it wasn't at all. The crust was lovely and crunchy.

Fig, Goat's Cheese and Parma Ham Pizza

(from The Telegraph)

(Serves 2-4)

1 packet pizza dough mix

1 tbsp oil
4 onions, halved and very finely sliced
8 small figs, halved
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
a little caster sugar for sprinkling

2-4 slices Parma ham
125g (4½oz) goat’s cheese, broken into chunks
a little extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling

Make up the pizza dough according to packet instructions.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions. Fry over a medium heat for about 7 mins, then add a couple of tbsp of water, season, cover the pan, turn down the heat and cook for about 10 mins. You want the onions to be soft and golden. If the mixture is quite “wet” at the end of this time, turn up the heat (with the lid off) to cook off the excess moisture. Set the onions aside.

A good half an hour before you want to cook the pizza, preheat the oven to 230°C, as hot as you can get it. Place a baking-sheet or pizza stone into the oven to heat.

Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead it a little, then roll it into a circle or a rough square, depending on whether you are using a pizza stone or a baking-sheet. It doesn’t have to be neat. It should be about 30-32cm across.

Carefully take the hot baking-sheet or stone out of the oven and flour it. Put the pizza dough on to it and, working quickly, top with the onions and the halved figs, leaving a 3cm edge all the way around the pizza. 

Spoon a little balsamic vinegar on top of each fig half and sprinkle a bit of sugar on each as well. Dot the chunks of goat’s cheese among the figs and rip over the Parma ham. Drizzle the goat’s cheese with a little olive oil. Grind some pepper over the top. Bake in the oven for 15 mins. The pizza should be golden and the figs slightly caramelised in patches. Serve.