Fresh Fig, Bacon + Blue Cheese Pizza.
Here’s the plan.
You only have to get through a few hours of the day before you can go home and make pizza. I want pizza Mondays to be real in my house. I think I said that a few weeks ago about tacos… but I mean I’m incredibly fickle to begin with so how can you be surprised. Regardless, nearly my entire life revolves around pizza and tacos. This is so very true that I even dedicated a portion of my book to such delicacies.
Well, they are delicacies to me. I’m simple.
ANYhoo.
I was shocked to find fresh figs in my local grocery store because they are only available here for about 3.6 seconds every year. Luckily, I can get dried figs every day of my life and consume those suckers like candy, but the fresh ones?… what a treat. I bought 12 of them for … 12 freaking dollars. Yes, like $12. One, two, dollar sign. One dollar per fig. You people with a fig tree are probably laughing in my face right now. I can’t help it though. I love them so much.Â
The majority were sliced for this pizza (hi dinner) and I enjoyed the rest of them fresh and simple like a freak. That’s how it should be.
People always ask me how I come up with the flavor combinations that I do. Well, I don’t really know? I just put together flavors that I like. I’d love to say that I have a much more sophisticated palette and can taste undertones (are those a thing?) in certain foods and put things together because they universally belong and match, but that is not the case.
In fact, the way I combine flavors is exactly the way I obnoxiously sing Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors: skeptically and quite often – wrong.
Let me just get this out of the way: I have no idea what the heck the lyrics of that song are but I sure act like I do. And as a sidebar, I just googled the lyrics (which I probably haven’t done since my Napster days) and I still stand by my argument that those are TOUGH lines. How is anyone supposed to decipher those? I don’t care that JT’s voice is like angels singing in my ears. I’ll happily make up my own song.
So the moral of this story is that I just really adore figs, cheese and – obviously – bacon. And pizza. And even… arugula. If I love all of those things, how could they steer me in the wrong direction? Exactly.
That’s why I ate all this pizza by myself.
WORTH IT.
Fresh Fig, Bacon + Blue Cheese Pizza
Ingredients
dough
- 1 1/8 cups warm water
- 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
pizza
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 fresh figs, sliced
- 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked until slightly crispy and fat is rendered
- 8 ounces fontina cheese, freshly grated
- 4 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- 2 cups fresh arugula
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- a pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
dough
- In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, honey and olive oil. Mix with a spoon, then let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add in 2 1/2 cups flour and salt, stirring with a spoon until the dough comes together but it still sticky. Using your hands, form the dough into a ball and work in the additional 1/2 cup flour, kneading it on a floured surface for a few minutes. Rub the same bowl with olive oil then place the dough inside, turning to coat. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 1-1 1/2 hours.
- After the dough has risen, punch it down and place it back on the floured surface. Using a rolling pin or your hands, form it into your desired shape (sometimes I use baking sheets and do rectangles or free form pizzas – this specific dough will yield one pizza large enough to feed about 3-4 people) and place on a baking sheet or pizza peel. Place the towel back over the dough and let sit in the warm place for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (I actually used a pizza stone and heated my oven to 450 degrees, and baked for 15 minutes. If you’re just using a baking sheet, follow the directions below for baking and set to 375 degrees.)
- Assemble the dough on a peel or baking sheet. Cover with a drizzle of olive oil and the garlic cloves, then spread on half of the fontina cheese. Add figs and bacon all over the pizza, then top with remaining fontina and blue cheese. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until cheese and crust is golden and bubbly. Remove and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Toss the arugula with olive oil, salt and pepper, then add on top of pizza. Serve!
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
There’s a lot of green stuff on there, no?
84 Comments on “Fresh Fig, Bacon + Blue Cheese Pizza.”
There is a restaurant in my town that makes a Black Fig/Gorgonzola pizza and I love it. Can’t wait to try this one with the bacon!
Is this what pizza looks like in heaven?! I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Figs-there really is nothing better :)
This looks terrific!
Fig on pizza…..well that is just amazing, my friend!!!
i love all the green stuff!
That looks so delicious figs and cheese sooooo good, have to try it .
Meghan Silva’s Blog
This looks divine! I am loving the flavor combination on this pizza, it’s gorgeous!
Let me start off by saying I do not like bacon. I am an outcast amongst my friends, coworkers, and most humans on the planet. However, when I shared this recipe with a friend on Monday she insisted we make it as the recipe calls: with that salty pork product I cannot tolerate. Being a good friend, I obliged. Let me tell you, last night was a total game changer for me. The salty combination of the bacon with the sweetness of the fresh fig and bite from the gorgonzola was out of this world. Never again will I question bacon when combined with such quality ingredients. To say this pizza is amazing is an understatement. Do yourself a favor and make this immediately, and then go back for seconds.
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I think I am in love with this pizza. Yes, I have most definitely found the love of my life. :-) Or was it that salmon? Anyhow, love this recipe!
And will certainly come back for more.
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We made this tonight and it was fabulous! I cheated and bought pizza dough from the store because I just don’t have the time to make it during the week. And now is the time for fresh figs here in Virginia. The real stars of this pizza are the blue cheese and the arugula. Of course, bacon and figs are wonderful, but you could easily substitute other ingredients to your liking or what is in season. .
Jessica,
I made this pizza last night with just a few changes due to personal preference (prosciutto instead of bacon, added caramelized onion, tossed arugula with balsamic) and let me tell you, it was amazing. I had to wipe the drool from my husband’s chin. I have been experimenting with different pizza doughs for a few months now, and yours is by far the best, beating out Bobby Flay who was my original go to. Thank you so much for your recipes and talent! I check your blog every day for new creations :-)
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This recipe has been deemed worthy of the Efreet’s seal of approval! X-D
http://efreetintheoven.blogspot.it/2013/08/fruit-is-healthy.html
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Is it ok to make the dough in advance and refrigerate it? If so, should it be taken out to rise again?
Thanks!
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I tried, and it´s really good!!!
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Made something similar today. Your recipe was the inspiration! Figs are in season and I was looking for a recipe that highlighted these beauties. Thanks for sharing! And I have a favorite Justin song too. Not a family song so I won’t type the title here. It comes on and I crank it. Every time :)
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