Fig, Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza

Anyone else pondering what to cook this weekend? I’m getting ready to strap Phoebe in the baby carrier and head to the grocery to stock up on ingredients for some great meals – and this fig, caramelized onion & goat cheese pizza is on the agenda. We’ll be taking advantage of what could be the last warm weekend of the year by grilling this one on the back patio (though I wouldn’t mind at all if I had to don a sweater to do it – I’m ready for fall temps!) If you’re wondering how to grill a pizza, you’re in luck: I already blogged about the step-by-step process with gorgeous photos by Buff Strickland here. Of course, you can also pop this onto a pizza stone and slide it onto the bottom rack of your oven for similar crispy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside crust. Whatever your cooking method of choice, these flavors are to die for. Sweet caramelized onions and figs topped with creamy goat cheese could almost qualify as dessert, until the peppery arugula and crunchy maldon salt bring it back into savory territory. Keep reading for more images and the recipe…

These grill marks are what you want to see…then you know it’s time to flip!

Adam mans the grill… one of my favorite things about grilling pizzas is that everyone pitches in!

Fig, Caramelized Onion & Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 ball pizza dough (homemade or store bought), at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• 1 white or sweet onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• kosher salt
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 fresh figs, halved or quartered
• 1/2 cup fresh mozzarella, grated
• 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 cups arugula
• maldon sea salt

Instructions:

1. Caramelize the onions: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until just tender, about 6 minutes. Add minced thyme, reduce heat to medium and cook until onions are golden, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over onions and sauté 10 more minutes. If pan gets dry, add a little water. Set aside to cool (this can be done a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator.)
2. Preheat the grill: one side should be at the highest temperature possible (we bring ours up to 600 degrees) and the other side should be on low heat. On a lightly floured cutting board, roll dough into a 10-inch free form circle as thinly as you can. Even thickness is key, but don’t worry too much about if it’s round, oval or rectangular…it should look “rustic!” Place on a sheet pan or cutting board, with sheets of parchment paper layered between stacked crusts.
3. Gather all your toppings (onions, figs, mozzarella, goat cheese & olive oil) and head out to the grill. Using my pizza grilling technique, grill the first side of the pizza. Flip when ready, then top crust with a drizzle of olive oil, figs, caramelized onion and both cheeses. Close hood, and when the cheese is melted, transfer pizza to a cutting board.
4. Top pizza with arugula and sprinkle with maldon salt. Cut into wedges and serve.

*images by Buff Strickland