Jo’s Trader Joes : Fig and Manchego Pizza

In this week’s Trader Joe’s inspired recipes I bring you the ultimate time saver: ready made pizza crust. I’ve long been a fan of their ready made refrigerated dough that comes in bag, you roll it out and make your own pizza. This however takes it up a notch, actually TWO notches! For starters, its already rolled out for you, but even better it’s organic. So you get a better quality dough, with even less work. Seriously, you can’t go wrong using this stuff.

Trader Joe’s Frozen Organic Pizza Crust

While you can prepare a traditional pie and be just fine, I’m suggesting a pizza that is a little off the beaten path. Why not go for a Fig and Manchego cheese flatbread concoction?!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Manchego cheese / Fig Butter or Jam / Fried onions / Arugula / Sliced dried figs

Most of the ingredients are readily available anywhere, but honestly you could pick up all these items in this same Trader Joe’s run. I know I did.

To start sprinkle some flour onto your pizza peel or a cookie sheet. Remove one crust from the package and allow to rest for about 25 minutes on the peel. Preheat your oven to about 425 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, all the better.  However if you don’t, you can bake this on the cookie sheet as well. After 25 minutes, spread some of the fig jam/butter onto the top of the crust until you have a thin layer.

At this point I like to take about 2 tablespoons of the fried onion and sprinkle it on the fig layer.

Then top this layer with about 1 cup of grated Manchego cheese, which is my go to cheese to pair with fig any day of the week!

Top the cheese with about 2 more tablespoons of the fried onion. Your pizza should be ready for the oven now. Slide it in and bake for about 8-10 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Meanwhile, toss about 1 cup of arugula with a little olive oil and sea salt. When the pizza is ready, top it with the arugula and sliced dried figs and serve immediately. 

This is perfect sliced into squares as an appetizer. Or eaten whole in one sitting while watching the Golden Globes. Hypothetically speaking of course.

Enjoy!