Fig, parma ham and goats cheese pizza

Perfect Friday food

Surely there's nothing better than a homemade pizza on a Friday night? Get home after a long week at work, off with the suit, on with the jeans, couple of beers, pizza...perfection. Save the partying for Saturday night, these days Friday night is for maxing and relaxing: i.e. nothing too taxing.

This particular pizza is loosely based on a recipe by Lorraine Pascale. Except with a different  recipe for the dough (HFW....again. Yes, I am aware I have a problem.). And my own recipe for the sauce. And Ms Pascale's pizza uses mozzarella instead of goats cheese. Look, I did say it was loosely based.

Being an absolute grammar fascist, the term goats cheese is absolute torture for me. Goats cheese? Goats' cheese? Goat's cheese? Or just Goat cheese?! None of these seem satisfactory.

Oh great, I've now said 'goats cheese' to the point where the words no longer sound right. I wonder if this is why Lorraine Pascale decided to use mozzarella? Wise woman.

Fig, parma and goats cheese pizza

Makes 2 large pizzas - enough for 3 people, or 2 bears.

For the dough:
500g strong plain flour
10g salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sachet dried instant yeast
330ml warm water

For the sauce:
(N.B. This makes about 4 times the amount you will need. I freeze the leftover sauce in individually-portioned sizes for future pizzas. Clever, no?)
2 x tins of chopped tomatoes
a large onion
4 cloves of garlic
large pinch of dried chilli
large pinch of dried oregano
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
S+P

For the topping:
4 figs
150g goats cheese (I used Coeur de lion 'la buche')
6 slices of parma ham
Handful of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
S + P

Start by making your dough. Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a bowl. Next, mix the olive oil and water together in a separate vessel, then add to the flour mixture. Use you hands to work everything together, and knead for about 10mins. Cover the bowl with a (clean!) teatowel and put in a warm place for 1.5 hours to rise.

While you wait for your dough to do its thing, make your sauce. Chop the onion and saute with the salt for 5 mins. Add the chopped garlic, chilli, oregano and black pepper and continue to fry for a few minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the vinegar and leave to simmer for about 20 mins or so, then blend to your preferred sauce consistency. I like mine a little bit chunky, so I only pulse it in the blender a few times.

Check out my chunky sauce

Preheat your oven AS HOT AS IT CAN GO. This bit is important, see? You need to wait until your oven is completely heated up to absolute maximum capacity before sticking the pizza in. In the meantime, chop all your toppings so you're ready to rock and roll as soon as the dough's rolled.

These toppings are READY for action

                                       
Get your dough, and push the air out of it. Roll out as thin as humanly possible, add the sauce (not too much mind, no-one likes a soggy pizza) then the parma ham, then the figs, and finally the goats cheese. Stick it in the oven to cook for about 7 minutes.


The Bear gettin' his roll on. Yes, that is a bottle of squash he is rolling with. We don't have a rolling pin at the moment. Don't judge us.


Once cooked, tear over some fresh basil, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil, scatter some salt and pepper and cut into slices. Ahhh...gotta love that Friday feeling.