Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Goat Cheese and Arugula

This is by far the fanciest pizza I've ever made.  It all came about because I had some goat cheese left over and wanted to make something different with it.  And wow... was this good or what!  This is one of those things that you can easily make into an appetizer and impress all of your friends.  If you know how to grill flat breads, it would be amazing and impressive grilled as well . I know for a fact that once we get a grill (hopefully within the next month!) that I'll be testing this recipe out on the grill for sure.  It's actually quite simple too and you can make ingredients ahead of time and just whip it up in a short time.  Enjoy!

Fig and Prosciutto Pizza with Goat Cheese and Arugula 
Serves: 4 small portions

Ingredients:
1 pizza crust (Find pizza crust recipe here... I used half of the dough in this recipe to make a nice thin crust, and you can freeze the second half until the next pizza!)

Fig merlot jam:
1/2 pound of fresh figs
2 tablespoons of organic cane sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons Merlot
1 tablespoon water

Toppings:
1 cup fresh arugula
4 oz goat cheese
3 oz prosciutto
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
olive oil for drizzling
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
To make the fig jam, cut the fresh figs into bite sized pieces and remove stems. Place in a mixing bowl with sugar and lemon juice.  Toss and let sit for 30 minutes.  Transfer into a small sauce pot and bring to a boil making sure to stir so the sugar doesn't burn.  Add merlot and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes.  

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and arrange the rack on the lowest level.  For the pizza, split the dough in half and freeze half for later.   With the remaining half, spread out onto a large baking sheet or pizza stone.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Spread the jam over the top of the crust and sprinkle with goat cheese.  

Place the pizza in the 500 degree oven for 10 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown.  

Top the pizza with the prosciutto, arugula and Parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.