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Oxymoron - Fig Pizza with Tart Onions

(post, Rinku Bhattacharya)


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Oxymoron - Fig Pizza with Vinegary Red Onions

This entire escapade of making the fig pizza was observed with a lot of skepticism by my family, well more specifically my husband’s cousin and her husband who were visiting us from India. Marrying sweet flavors such as pairing fruit into savory dishes is something that I love, it is however, not a concept that is always met with favor with someone with a more traditional Indian palate. 
Well, to rectify this oversight, I played with a very popular condiment that is popular in Indian food, red onions soaked in vinegar. This does not take much to do, just slice the onions and soak them in plain vinegar for about 30 minutes and it is done. This mixture keeps well for about a week, with the tartness getting stronger. It is used as a relish for lentils and rice, and also is good and salads and if you try stretching the boundaries like me, you will find that is good for fig pizza with a hint of Indian spirit.

Fig Pizza with Marinated Red Onions

Prep Time: 45 minutes (includes heating the Pizza stone)
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Makes 2  8 inch pizzas

Ingredients

1 pizza stone
1 package store made pizza dough
Flour and cornmeal for working the dough
½ cup chopped fresh mozzarella 
1 cup coarsely chopped gorgonzola
10 figs, thinly sliced
½ cup vinegar soaked onions
1 tablespoon coarsely cracked black pepper
10 basil leaves

Method of Preparation

1.	Place the pizza stone to the center of the oven and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Let this heat for 30 minutes.
2.	Divide the dough into two balls and then shape into two thin rounds using flour as needed to shape and stretch the dough.
3.	Place on the pizza stone and top the dough with fresh mozzarella and some of the gorgonzola.
4.	Top with a comfortable layer of figs evenly over the pizza and scatter with the onions.
5.	Top with the remaining gorgonzola and the black pepper.
6.	Increase the temperature to 500 degrees.
7.	Bake the pizza for 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and is bubbly and crisp at the edges.
8.	Remove the pizza from the oven and add the basil leaves and let them wilt.
9.	Cut the pizza into pieces before serving.

The results and the tastes of the recipe are for the adventurous palate, sweet, savory with some pungent notes from the onions.