Ah… pizza, pizza. We’re starting an entire category on pizzas because the varieties are infinite and they are very sailboat friendly. If you can get your hands on a pre-made crust you’ll be a good half hour ahead of the game. If not, check out this pizza dough recipe and make it from scratch. I happened to find some great pre-made brick oven pizza crusts at Graul’s so my job was easy. This is the first of two. I’ll post a Mediterranean Sun-dried Tomato White Pizza tomorrow.

Prosciutto & Arugula Pizza

One pizza crust
One 15 oz. can pizza sauce
1/2 Vidalia onion, sliced thin
4-5 slices of prosciutto
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 lb fresh mozzarella, cut into 1″ slices
2 cups loosely packed arugula leaves
1/2 cup shaved parmesan
1/4 teaspoon truffle oil

Preheat your galley oven to as hot as you can get it. Try to get above 400° if you can.

Prepare your ingredients: Slice your onion, cut up the fresh mozzarella and shave some parmesan. Shred the mozzarella if you did not buy it pre-shredded.

Now for the simple assembling instructions: Place your pizza crust on a pizza pan. Spoon on the sauce, just to the edges. Sprinkle on the shredded mozzarella, then lay on the fresh mozzarella and onion slices. Pull apart the prosciutto and lay on top.

Place in your pre-heated galley oven. HOT is what we want. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and a little browning begins. While that is baking, prepare your salad.

What? Salad? We thought we were having pizza! Ah, yes. This is the addition of arugula and parmesan. Throw your arugula, shaved parmesan and truffle oil into a bowl and toss. After the pizza is pulled from the oven, throw the arugula “salad” on top and place in the oven again for an additional 3-5 minutes…just until the parmesan starts to melt and the arugula starts to wilt. If the arugula is too wilted, throw a little more on after it’s out of the oven.

Slice up and serve.

If you’re trying to get the average kid to eat pizza with “salad” on top, good luck. But if your kids are live-aboard cruisers, good chance they’ll like it. Funny thing about those live-aboard kids, they’ve learned not to be too picky. That’s one of the many benefits to raising a family aboard a sailboat.

And it is certainly a crowd pleaser with the more heath conscious adults. Check in with us tomorrow to see another “artisan” pizza: Feta & Sun-Dried Tomato. Yum!

Aaargh!