Goat’s Cheese, Caramelised Onion and Fig Pizza

This is the best goat cheese pizza ever! Served on a bed of San Marzano tomatoes, caramelised onions, juicy figs, creamy goat’s cheese and finished with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar…this pizza will get the whole family wanting more!

Preparation time

Cooking time

Serves

12 people

Ingredients

6 x 250g pizza dough ball, already proven or 6 x 250g ready made pizza dough balls
400g Italian tinned San Marzano tomatoes
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar
½ handful of fresh basil
150g mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes
150g soft goat’s cheese
9 whole figs, cut into quarters
Aged balsamic vinegar
Whole basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
For the caramelised onions:
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme
1 tsp of sugar
Pinch of salt and pepper

Method

Pre-heat your Fuego oven to 400°C.
To make the sauce, just blitz the San Marzano tomatoes with a pinch of salt, sugar and the basil, keeping a bit of texture.
To make the caramelised onions, heat the olive oil in a medium size frying pan, add the onions, sugar, salt, pepper and thyme and cook on a low heat for 30 minutes until very soft. Set aside and allow to cool down.
Lightly dust a clean surface with some flour or semolina flour and place your dough ball in the centre. Leaving one inch on either side of the diameter of the dough ball, press the dough with all fingers to flatten, turn to the other side and repeat the process. Turn back to the original side and repeat the process one more time.
Use your right hand to hold the flatten dough one inch in to keep the edge puffy and place your left hand’s thumb and index fingers on the top side of the dough and the rest of fingers below and pull the dough to stretch. Flip the dough over to your forearm with your palm open and flip back to the bench. Repeat the process a few times to stretch the dough evenly.
Start by spooning a thin layer of tomato sauce, leaving 2.5cm around the edge for the crust to rise. Spoon some of the caramelised onions, then scatter a few mozzarella cubes, crumble some goats cheese and scatter six fig quarters. Be careful not to spill the sauce on the pizza peel as this may stop the pizza from sliding from the peel into the oven.
Transfer your pizza base onto a pizza peel which is also lightly dusted with semolina flour and stretch the edges of the pizza base, so it’s fully laid out.
Using your pizza peel, slide your pizza into your Fuego oven. Using a turning pizza peel pick the pizza from the side, bring to the front of the oven and turn it round. Do not turn your pizza inside the oven, as it will pick too much ash. Keep your eyes on the pizza, as failing to turn regularly will result in very charred black edges. Once you have a puffed crust which is darkly charred in spots, remove from the oven with your turning peel and slide into a serving platter. Watch out, the pizza will be extremely hot once removed from the oven; you may need to leave it a minute to cool.
Finish the pizza with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar, some basil leaves and extra virgin olive oil.

Goat’s Cheese, Caramelised Onion and Fig Pizza

Perfectionists in the Art of Wood-Fired Cooking.