Fig Pizza

I'm doing it again ya'll. Apparently to me, summer means putting fruit on pizzas. This year I'm taking everyone's favorite prolific fruit — figs! — with other savory, complementary elements, and putting it all atop pizza crust, for yet another reason to turn on the oven in the summer. Yes, it's fig pizza, but it's classier than you'd think.

Figs have an earthy sweetness that works well with more flavors than you'd think. The Flavor Bible advises figs to be paired with any of the following: almonds, blue cheese, gorgonzola cheese, goat cheese, ricotta cheese, cinnamon, ice cream, honey, lemon and lime juice, olive oil, orange juice and zest, prosciutto, raspberries, brown sugar, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, red wine, sherry, and walnuts.

So in this recipe I took inspiration from the goat cheese and also added some richer, savory, and smoky elements in the form of caramelized onions and bacon. Fresher elements come from well, fresh stuff — fresh unbaked figs, and arugula micro greens (or regular arugula if you don't have City Roots greens available to you!).

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Fig Pizza

Put a fig on it, and goat cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, and arugula to make a delicious pizza that's lightened up for summer, aka fig season!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword figs, goat cheese, pizza

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Servings 6 slices

Equipment

• Pizza stone

Ingredients

• 1 pizza dough of choice
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal optional
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4-6 slices bacon
• 6 ounces goat cheese crumbles
• 10-20 figs divided
• arugula microgreens or regular wild arugula
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Prepare your pizza crust and roll it out on a pizza stone that's been dusted with cornmeal.
• Cut the onion into thin slices from top to bottom, to create thin crescent shapes.
• Heat a large frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to medium heat.
• Add the onions and salt, and begin turning every 5 minutes until caramelized. This should take between 15-20 minutes. Do not let the onions burn, turn down the heat as necessary.
• Prepare your bacon. I like to bake mine on a baking pan with a rack by putting the slices in a cold oven and turning to 425 F. Set a timer for 25 minutes and bake. Or you can pan fry, but don't let it get cooked all of the way through since it will be baking in the oven later.
• Once the onions and bacon and cool enough to handle, spread the onions on the pizza crust.
• Then use scissors to cut the bacon into smaller pieces and scatter it across the crust.
• Slice your figs in halves or rounds and put half of them on the pizza. Set the rest aside.
• Finally, top the pizza with the goat cheese and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
• Once removed from the oven, add the remaining fresh fig slices and arugula. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

When Should You Pick Figs?

When you pick figs for this recipe, look for ones that have a hint of green on them still, that means they aren't all the way ripe, which makes them easier for slicing! If you want to eat them directly, them go for the riper, browner ones, which are sweeter and slightly softer — making them perfect for a snack.

If you are not going to use the figs immediately, choosing ones that have begun to show a hint of color are best. Totally green figs will not ripen in the fridge. Once figs are ripe, they need to be used very quickly before they turn into rotten mush. And no one wants that, especially if you spent time plucking the figs from the trees yourself. No need to let hard work go to waste! Store all figs in the fridge as soon as they are picked.

Though I pick figs from local public(ish) trees, I really want a fig tree in my own backyard and have been looking into the best times and conditions for planting a fig tree. Looks like autumn in Zone 8 is the best time to plant, but if you are interested in growing figs in your yard too, I am using advice from the one and only Farmers Almanac.

Looking for more fig recipes? I have a whole week of them ahead, plus a roundup of other bloggers' favorite and unusual ways to use figs!