Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

On our way back to small town Iowa last week, Matt and I rendezvoused with my mom in Iowa City for an al fresco lunch at Atlas and a trip to the co-op to buy some goods for our weekend of cooking.  For some time now I've been reading about and wanting to try La Quercia prosciutto, and I figured that New Pi would be the place to find it.  Unfortunately, every time I step foot in there my mind is a complete blank, save the ticker running a constant message of "peppered bacon peppered bacon peppered bacon..."  I stock up on Amana peppered bacon and I'm out of there.  Ironically, the peppered bacon caused me to discover the LQ prosciutto this time around.  I went to grab a package or two of the bacon from its usual spot in the top left section of the refrigerated case, and it wasn't there.  There was plenty of maple bacon, but there wasn't a package of peppered bacon to be found.  While the nice, ponytailed guy from the wine section attempted to track down some peppered bacon for us, I glanced over the rest of the cured meats.  Lo and behold, about three feet down and to the right of the bacon were several packages of La Quercia Prosciutto Americano.  My mom and I each grabbed one, settled for some maple bacon, and checked out.  

Shortly after arriving home that evening, we tore open the first package of prosciutto.  It was incredibly delicious, as you would imagine from prosciutto that comes from happy pigs.  That first night we just ate pieces straight from the package alongside chunks of crusty bread, slices of mahon, and creamy Reichert's Dairy Air sun-dried tomato basil goat cheese.  

A few days later when we headed back to Minneapolis with an unopened package of prosciutto and a couple of juicy peaches I heard the kitchen calling my name.  I initially considered using them in a salad, but for one reason or another I opted for the less healthy route of using them to top a pizza.  My thighs may be a little worse off, but my taste buds rejoiced.  The combination of the salty, crispy pork and the sweet peaches was phenomenal.  

Peach + Prosciutto Pizza

Pizza dough

3-4 slices prosciutto

1 fresh peach

2 tbsp crumbled blue cheese and/or

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan 

Olive oil

Start by tearing the prosciutto into about 1" pieces and slicing the peach into 12-16 pieces.  

Roll out the pizza dough on a flour or cornmeal dusted surface and brush it with olive oil.  Top with prosciutto, peaches, and cheese.  I couldn't decide between blue cheese and parmesan, so I added a little of both.  This is More Cheese More Chocolate, after all.  I'm a sucker for blue cheese on pizza, but the parmesan also worked well and was a little more toned down.  

Cook on a pizza stone in a 450 oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is browned to your liking.  

The prosciutto crisped up and was absolutely delicious paired with the soft peaches.  If you don't want all of the prosciutto to be crispy I imagine you could just place it under the peaches instead of on top or just throw it on when you take the pizza out of the oven.  You really can'tgo wrong either way.