Epic win for Lizz

Dorian is a scientist--which is a nice way to say that he refuses to believe anything until he sees it / hears it / pokes it in the eye for himself. Although it is sometimes annoying that he never gives me enough credit to accept I'm right just on faith, it usually works in my favor by upping the "Told You So" factor once he Googles whatever it is and confirms my report.

His characteristic doubt can be problematic when it comes to meal-planning, as he generally scoffs at recipes that he has not personally taste-tested and approved. You see the issue here, right? Theoretically, he'd never try anything new. However, he thoughtfully combines this neurosis with a very healthy sense of adventure, and though he might literally wrinkle his nose at a particular ingredient list, he will dive right in and try it. (1)

To wit: Pizza with Figs and Gorgonzola. Now, any of you out there with at least a passing knowledge of yummy things know that figs, bleu cheese, caramelized onions, and prosciutto is one of the Flavor Combinations Approved by the Gods. I love everything about it, and it is the non-traditional pizza topping I crave most ardently. Dorian thinks it sounds weird, especially since it features proscuitto, which he hates (2), and is called "pizza" but contains neither mozzarella nor tomatoes.

I've been trying to get him to eat this for years--decades, even--but it took another food blog (3) to convince him that such a concotion might not only be tasty but, more importantly, beautiful photo-fodder. It took 0.0000002 seconds for me to acquire the ingredients once he suggested this recipe. (4)

Anyway, here it is:

--pre-heat oven and pizza stone @ 500 for at least 30 min
--bring 1 lb pizza dough to room temp, 45 min (5) 
--divide in half; wrap both halves and rest another 20 min
--pull dough into rustic pizza shapes, repairing any tears
--brush with olive oil; bake 4 min
--top with caramelized onions, sliced figs, (6) and crumbled gorgonzola
--bake 6-7 min, until crust is brown and cheese is bubbly
--top with torn proscuitto; devour

I really, really wish I'd had some fresh arugula to put on top; nothing gets me going like a nice peppery salad on top of a pizza (this, too, grosses Dorian out).

This was ridiculously easy, as the only prep was caramelizing the onion, which I had done much earlier in the day, idly and irresponsibly ignoring them as they cooked down on the stove, not even stirring them until about 20 minutes in, while I worked on my last blog post. Everything else just got sliced, torn, or crumbled, and (not counting dough-resting time) the whole thing took about 20 minutes. Then, of course, Dorian photographed the stupid things at all possible angles, shutter speeds, and light whatevers, with NotOneButTWO different lenses, before finally allowing me to eat my goddamned dinner already.

Success! He loved it, every bite--even the proscuitto. Salty, creamy, sweet, crunchy...there are no flavors or textures that you could possibly ever want that are not involved in this pizza. Make it. NOW.

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(1) Especially now that I'm blogging about our food and he can use that as his alibi to play with his camera toys.

(2) How am I married to this person?

(3) See? Anyone else's word is more reliable than mine, apparently.

(4) It was so speedy, in fact, that one might suspect me of keeping figs, gorgonzola, and proscuitto around at all times in the unlikely event that such a sea-change might occur. But that would just be ridiculous. *nervous laugh*

(5) I bought ours from Publix; it was surprisingly good, though next time I'll pick it up from Gianni's, where it's cheaper and even better.

(6) We used both Black Mission and Calimyrna figs, because they were pretty and I couldn't decide between them and they were BOGO at the market, so why not?