I feel very strongly that pizza and salad should be eaten together. A nice salad just rounds out the meal. Plus you get to pat yourself on the back afterward because you didn’t just eat cheese, sauce and carbs. So if you’re eating both pizza and salad anyway, why not combine them? I’ve been to a few restaurants that did this, and have always enjoyed it. So I decided to create a salad pizza of my own! This version is a fig and gorgonzola salad pizza. The spring mix salad is tossed with a zesty honey balsamic vinaigrette. And the pizza itself is lightly sauced with homemade garlic oil (and topped with confit garlic cloves, because duh). It’s a delicious celebration of late summer, early autumn produce, and I hope you try it!
Before we get started, here’s a quick teaser video.
Serving note:
This pizza is topped with salad. If you plan on making it for later, or even just saving some for later, I would highly recommend not adding the salad before boxing it up. Instead, add it right before serving. That way, you don’t end up with a soggy mess. Or even worse, a hot lettuce situation.
Also, feel free to choose your desired crust thickness and pizza size! I went with a large thin crust pizza for this, but if chewier personal pizzas are more your jam, go for it.
What dough should I use
That’s up to you! I used my one hour pizza dough. It’s incredibly easy to make, and works great here. But if you don’t want to make your own dough, that’s totally fine. When buying dough at the store, I always recommend purchasing pre-made refrigerated pizza dough. They make all sorts of pre-made crusts, but I personally don’t find the ones that have already been baked to be appealing. This isn’t a lunchable.
What about sauce?
This is basically a sauceless pizza. All I use was some garlic infused olive oil. Basically, just make a batch of confit garlic and use the oil from that. I know it seems like an ordeal. But it’s super easy to make, can be done while the dough rises, and tastes amazing. This pizza also uses confit garlic cloves. I think they’re a pretty incredible addition, but if you don’t want to make confit garlic, I would recommend roasting a head of garlic and adding that to your pizza. If you go this route, you can sauce your dough with regular olive oil. It’ll be fine.
Do I need any special tools to make pizza
Definitely not! Buuuut as is often the case, there are a couple things you can buy to make your life easier and your pizzas better. Those things are a pizza stone and a pizza peel. To use the stone, place it in the oven before you turn it on. Preheat the oven with the stone inside. Then when it’s time to cook your pizza, use your peel to transfer it to the stone. No pan necessary! I like to make this transfer using a piece of parchment paper underneath the pizza. Then I slide it right onto the stone. Super easy, and it’ll cook beautifully this way. But if you don’t have the time, money or kitchen space for these two sizable items, a pan will do just fine!
Just keep in mind that if you use a pizza stone, your pizza will cook a bit faster than if you use a pan. It’s not a huge difference, though. I tried it both ways and found that at 450° Fahrenheit my pizzas were ready after about 12 minutes when using the stone, and 15 when using a pan. But there are lots of other factors at play, so just keep an eye on it.
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Fig and Gorgonzola Salad Pizza
Equipment
- Pizza stone and peel if you have, otherwise a pan works fine
Ingredients
Pizza
- 1 ball Pizza dough (My recipe is linked above)
- 2 tbsp Garlic infused olive oil (Use the oil from your confit garlic)
- 3-5 Figs Fresh, sliced
- 2 oz Gorgonzola
- 1/4 cup Walnuts Chopped
- 7 cloves Confit garlic (My recipe is linked above)
Salad
- 4 cups Spring mix
- 2 oz Gorgonzola
- 3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Honey
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- If you haven't already, make your pizza dough, followed by your confit garlic. (The resting period for the dough is the perfect time to make the confit garlic. Recipes for both are linked earlier in this blog post.)
- Preheat your oven to 450° Fahrenheit. If using a pizza stone, put it in the oven now.
- Once your pizza dough is ready to go, stretch or roll it out to the desired size and thickness. I made one large, thin pizza, but feel free to adjust to your liking. Two thicker personal sized pizzas also work great here. When you're done with this, move it onto a piece of parchment paper if you're using a pizza stone, or your baking sheet of choice.
- Add about 2 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil to the top of the dough, followed by your sliced figs, walnuts, and confit garlic cloves. Then bake for 10-15 minutes, or until it's fully cooked and the crust is golden (the lower range is for thin crust using a pizza stone, the upper for slightly thicker pies in a pan).
- While your pizza cooks, make your salad dressing! Add 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste to a small jar and shake until combined. Then toss with spring mix (if using immediately – if serving later, do it then) and 2oz crumbled gorgonzola cheese.
- When you pull your pizza(s) out of the oven, slice them, top them with a heaping portion of your dressed salad and enjoy!
Thanks for reading! If you make this, I really hope you love it. Of course, if you do, let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Instagram. I always love hearing from you and seeing your creations (seriously – makes my day).
Looking for more fig recipes? Try my fig and caramel upside down cake or my chocolate dipped figs with sea salt!