Fig & Brie Cheese Pizza – Summer isn’t over yet!
We were ready for Autumn, or what ever version Southern California is capable of, and looking forward to pumpkins, apples and the cooler dry air that marks our fall. However the weather has been indecisive about what season it wants to represent, or maybe it was one last summer ho-rah, because we were just inundated with several weeks of hot, 90°+ sunshine.
Unfortunately, our extension of hot days and plenty of sunshine is playing tricks on the garden. Our tomatoes have found their “second wind” and are now producing way more flowers and growth than ever before. The eggplant and zucchini are plump and adorable and our huge fig tree is offering sweet love to us admirers below (and unfortunately also to the squirrels up above – cheeky, little bastards!)
Fig with Brie and Grapes, brie and thyme pizza toppings
Obviously, if the garden says it’s still Summer, than we’ll heed to their call and bounty. We’ll continue harvesting everything that was supposed to grow in August well into October. So it’s time to pull out the pizza dough and make some pizzas with all the gorgeous figs in the garden.
We even tried the pizza with some grape toppings and they come out delicious! The pizza possibilities are endless.
-Diane
**Pardon the interuption. It’s Todd here and I wanted to chat a bit about pizza.
Making your own pizza crusts is super simple, especially after adapting in the methods from the internet cult favorite bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Here’s our recipe for a thin crust pizza dough, but after chatting with Nancy Silverton just before our Japan trip, she had described a technique for a focaccia crust she saw in Italy which peaked our intrigue. When we come up with a recipe we love for a plump, thick crust, we’ll post about that as well. If anyone has a dough recipe that they are mad over, please feel free to share it in the comments.
For our thin crust pizzas, I picked up a lovely little trick while working in the restaurant underworld. We’ll make a batch of 5-6 crusts, par bake them, then freeze the crusts for future use. When you are pizza starved, take a crust out of the freezer, crank up the oven to 450-500°F, and while your oven heats up and the crust thaws a little, prepare your toppings. Brush the crust with touch of olive oil, put on your toppings, toss in the oven and in 5-10 minutes the pizza is ready.
Now back to the regularly typed commentary…
“Pizza with figs? Grapes!?” you may be wondering with a bit of skepticism. “Yes!” we say. Heartily, yes.
It isn’t that bizarre when you compare figs to a classic pizza topping, tomatoes. Tomatoes are, after all, a fruit not all that different from figs in texture and sweetness. The grapes came out pretty tasty, too. Their flavor profiles are a bit different from tomatoes, and that is where the brie cheese comes in.
Fruit with brie cheese pair wonderfully together in sandwiches and salads. Topping them on pizza is even better, where the cheese is able to melt and the fruit roasts down to expose its nectary sweet sugar flavors. The thin, crisp crust of the pizza provides the perfect delivery of Autumn/Summer’s bounty.
Fig & Brie Pizza Recipe- or with grapes
Ingredients
- Par-Baked Pizza Crust
- Brie cheese , thinly sliced
- Handful of ripe figs/grapes , sliced
- tomato sauce
- olive oil
- fresh basil (optional)
- fresh cracked pepper (optional)
- sea salt (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 450°F.
- Brush pizza crust with olive oil. Add a thin layer of tomato sauce, then place brie and figs on crust. Sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper & sea salt, if desired.
- Place crust on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in oven for @ 10 min. or until crust is nicely browned.
- Remove from oven, & finish with fresh basil, if desired.
I just made this on my Big green egg. Wife: “So weird!! But so good!” I used baby bell because… well, that’s all I had handy.
My photography sucked. Thanks for the idea!
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Biq9C7HBohc/TG3lHB2XiQI/AAAAAAAABKI/16nTfio842Y/s640/P1000329.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Biq9C7HBohc/TG3lHyw4-II/AAAAAAAABKM/xZHdt_1cRU8/s640/P1000330.jpg
I am so silly. I literally wasted a bag of perfectly ripened figs a friend had given me b/c I was stumped on what to make…
Oh my goodness gracious! I want some fig pizza right now! I’ll have to give it a try with your pizza dough recipe!
Beautiful photos!
beautiful photos! I love making pizza
your figs look so lovely and ripe. I’m very jealous – we’ve had such a sun-free summer in the UK that I’ve had one ripe fig all summer.
Fig pizza is a wonderful thing. Another ingredient that works well on a fig pizza is caramlised onions
I love untraditional, clean pizzas. Now I’m inspired to try figs or luscious grapes.
It’s defo fig season at my house too. Our tree is going bananas with figs and I see we’re on the same page with the pizza idea! I made mine with goat’s cheese and fresh spinach http://thehealthyirishman.com/2009/09/fig-and-goats-cheese-pizza/ and have been trying new fig recipes out the wazoo! Cheers!
Very intriguing combinations of flavors, and the figs keep their colour so beautifully when baked!
Greetings,
Tiina
I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing better than the balance of sweet and savory. When you bake figs the sugars soften and meld into the glorious flavors of the cheese. A great recipe idea to be tried immediately. Yum!
What a wonderful idea! I also have overflowing figs and have made fig jam, fig tart and fig salad. I can’t wait to try this. And I’m also grateful for the pizza dough recipe.
I love figs paired with just about anything! A farmer at my market grows about 17 different kinds and I had a wonderful assortment just the other day. yum!
I think the brie and fig combination sounds divine. I’m definitely going to have to try it. I’ve been looking for a pizza dough recipe, so thanks for posting this. I’m going to give it a go this weekend.
Oh yumster! I vote for figs and grape on pizzas! Looks delicious.
Do you deliver to New York? ๐
Thanks for sharing the par baked pizza crust tip – that’s great.
oh yeah. I used to actually eat brie and grape sandwiches in England all the time for lunch. Love the pairing of fruit and brie. It was only last week that I gave figs on a pizza a go. Loved it.
Like how you compare them to tomatoes on a pizza. totally agree. Also love the idea of freezing a par baked pizza crust. Genius!
Fresh figs! And in abundance too! Enjoy your good fortune…well, it looks like you are doing just that ๐ These pizzas look amazing!
Thanks for the par-baked pizza crust tip!