If you have some pizza dough on hand, and a package of prosciutto, some fresh mozzie and fresh tomatoes, a pizza marriage can be made. Especially with the arugula salad on top and decorated with more Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.
Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, but I can remember the first time I had pizza with a salad on top – it was at California Pizza Kitchen, and it was surely 25 years ago, or more. What a combo, I thought. And I’ve ordered it many times since. And I’ve made it in a few variations. Most recently it was the Pioneer Woman’s version with prosciutto and figs. I’ve also made an artichoke & zucchini focaccia pizza too, and because I love the salad aspect, I’ve added it onto the other pizzas I’ve made too, like my all-time favorite one, chicken, red onion and kalamata olive pizza.
This one had an arugula salad on top. Truth be known – I love-love arugula. It’s the peppery-lemony biting flavor of it that I like so much. In this case it’s tossed in a light olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Nothing fancy at all – I didn’t even measure, although the recipe does give you amounts.
The recipe came from yet another cooking class with Phillis Carey. What a wonder woman she is. Five different dishes at this last class, and five winners. You’ll see them all here eventually. This was the first one I made from the class. And I’ll tell you right now – my DH Dave and our dinner guest Irene both nearly levitated off their chairs they loved this pizza so much. Dave even ate my little pieces of crust I’d left on my plate. If you can’t find or can’t get fresh mozzarella, you can use regular mozzie. It won’t have the same taste, but it’ll be good. And if you want to try a little something different, add some goat cheese to the mixture. That will make it good too.
One of the features of home made pizza is creating individual sizes – a one pound ball of pizza (which I bought at Trader Joe’s a week or so ago) can be divided to make 2 to 4 pizzas, or even 8 if you want small ones. I divided it into thirds, which was just right for us. Bigger appetites, maybe not enough. One of the secrets to working with raw pizza dough is giving the dough enough time – in between stretching it out – to rest and relax the gluten. In the past when I’ve been in a hurry and just jammed and pushed and pulled to try to get the pizza dough to stretch out into a big enough shape, and I’d get so frustrated. I knew it needed to rest, but I was in a gosh-darned hurry and didn’t have time for the blasted dough to give me trouble. But it will let you manipulate it if you just let it rest.
What I did was cut the dough into thirds. I put those blobs onto a rimmed baking sheet. Then I drizzled my hands with olive oil (actually it was grapeseed oil) and pressed out the dough some. Whatever you do, DON’T oil the entire ball of dough as then it won’t stick to the pan. It’ll just slide right back into a blob after every pushing/stretching session. As I began gathering up the ingredients for the pizza, I’d give the pizza dough another stretch, then I’d wash my hands again and go do something else for 10 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes to get the rest of the dinner together, and by then the dough was perfectly pliable and I was able to stretch it easily into sort of oval shapes.
Then the toppings begin. Because I’d oiled my hands as I molded the dough, I didn’t need to put oil on the top of each pizza. You choice, though. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch and shape the dough if you don’t like getting your hands icky. Phillis used fresh oregano. Well, I didn’t have any fresh,so I just used dried. That went on first. Then half of the Parmesan cheese, sprinkled all over the dough. Then the fresh Mozzie went on, along with the strips of prosciutto. More Parmesan went on with a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes (the recipe calls for plum tomatoes) and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.
They’re baked in a hot oven and once removed it’s so much easier to go ahead and slice the pizza right then and there, THEN dress the arugula, pile the salad on top. I slid the pizzas onto plates, then topped each with the salad. Then you sprinkle on the last bit of Parmesan and toasted pine nuts.
What I liked: well, it’s easy to make, especially if you buy the raw pizza dough. Just have all the ingredients ready and it’s quick to put together. The toughest part is stretching the dough into place. The tastes in this are just fantastic.
What I didn’t like: nothing at all!
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Prosciutto and Fresh Mozzarella Pizza with Arugula Salad and Pine Nuts
Recipe By: Phillis Carey
Serving Size: 4
NOTES: If you’re using Trader Joe’s pizza dough, don’t use a pizza stone. Their dough is too sticky – you’ll never get it off the pizza stone. Instead, just use a large baking sheet.
1 pound pizza dough
3 tablespoons olive oil — divided use
1/4 cup fresh oregano — coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese — freshly grated, divided use [or more]
1 pound fresh Mozzarella — thinly sliced
1/4 pound prosciutto — sliced, cut into wide strips (do not dice it)
2 cups plum tomatoes — seeded, diced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes — crushed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups arugula
1/4 cup pine nuts — toasted
1. Preheat oven to 450°. Divide pizza dough in half (or quarters if you’d like individual pizzas) and stretch dough into thin circles. (Ideally start doing this an hour before you want to bake it – if you stretch, then let it rest, then stretch again, and repeat several times the dough has time to relax in between and you’ll eventually get it to roll out and stretch sufficiently.) Use your hands moistened with a bit of the olive oil, and push only on the upper side. The sticky dough needs to cling to the pan – if you oil the bottom it will never stretch!
2. Sprinkle the pizza rounds with the fresh oregano and half of the Parmesan cheese.
3. Arrange slices of Mozzie on top of the Parmesan, then add the prosciutto slices. Sprinkle the diced tomatoes on top and red pepper flakes.
4. Bake the pizzas for 12-15 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and immediately put them on a cutting board and slice them into 2-4 wedges, but leave it shaped in a circle. Move to plates.
5. In a bowl place arugula and drizzle the remaining 1 T. olive oil on top, then add the lemon juice. Toss with your hands, then pile the salad on top of the pizza. Add remaining Parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts. Serve immediately.
Per Serving: 753 Calories; 41g Fat (47.7% calories from fat); 46g Protein; 55g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 88mg Cholesterol; 1067mg Sodium.
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