Arugula And Prosciutto Pizza

Salad is fine and all but salad's nothing compared to pizza. That's why I love arugula and prosciutto pizza. It's salad and pizza in one. Of all my popular unique pizza recipes, arugula and prosciutto pizza is one of my favorites, especially when the weather starts warming up.

Arugula and prosciutto pizza is the perfect spring/summer pizza

I first experienced this glorious pizza topping combo at Eataly L.A. where, if memory serves, the pizza also came topped with fresh burrata. Jimmy and I were a little skeptical when we ordered it. He's more of a pepperoni-only kinda guy, but we both love an arugula salad so we gave it a try. And it was so, so good.

The arugula is peppery with lots of bright acid from the lemon juice. The prosciutto is salty with crispy edges from the broiler. Those contrasting flavors with the richness of the cheese and the garlicky olive oil on the crust are really just so tasty.

So when we found ourselves with some leftover prosciutto, it only made sense to try making arugula and prosciutto pizza ourselves.

The sauce is a high-quality olive oil mixed with minced garlic, shallot, and rosemary spooned onto the dough. It's topped with thick smattering of mozzarella cheese and a few slices of hand-torn prosciutto.

The pizza bakes in just a few minutes in a home oven, crisping the edges of the prosciutto just right. And the short baking time is just enough to dress the arugula so it's ready to go on the pizza as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Grocery & Ingredient Notes

Here's what you'll need to make arugula and prosciutto pizza! Nothing too fancy required. This recipe makes enough to top about one medium pizza or two small pizzas. See recipe card for quantities.

To make this pizza, I like using my homemade overnight pizza dough, which I developed to be stretched super thin with a chewy crust. The sauce is my simple 5-minute garlic olive oil pizza sauce which also has finely minced shallots and fresh rosemary in it.

I always use low-moisture mozzarella cheese on pizza for the best melt (I shred it myself instead of buying the pre-shredded stuff), so make sure whatever mozzarella you buy says "low moisture" on the package.

For the arugula topping, I like using baby arugula, and you can use fresh-squeezed or bottled lemon juice, both are fine.

What Pizza Dough To Use

For this arugula and prosciutto pizza I used an 8 oz (~220 grams) ball of pizza dough.

I usually make a batch of my favorite basic overnight pizza dough, which I divide and shape into 4 dough balls and store tall, round deli containers in the fridge. The thin, crispy crust is more than sturdy enough to hold up the prosciutto and arugula.

No matter what kind of pizza dough you use, check out my guide to hand stretching pizza dough for how to pre-shape and stretch your pizza dough like a pro!

How to Make Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza

Start by preheating the baking steel in the oven at 500°F for about an hour. Make sure you have all of your pizza topping ingredients ready to go before you start stretching the pizza dough. Dust your pizza peel with semolina flour (or use parchment paper) to make sure the pizza can slide off it easily.

Once the pizza dough is on the peel, work efficiently to get the pizza assembled so that the dough doesn't stick to the peel.

The cheese comes next. I like to use the wide holes of a box grater for the mozzarella, and use a microplane zester to do a light dusting of parmesan cheese over the whole thing last.

Pro-tip: Get some parmesan cheese on the crust, too! It melts right onto the crust and gives it a really nice flavor. I'm one of those people who loves eating the pizza crusts, so if I can add some cheesy flavor to it — that's a win.

The prosciutto goes down next. There's no real rhyme or reason to the placement here, but I like to tear the slices into smaller pieces as I'm putting them down.

Tearing the prosciutto into smaller pieces makes it less likely that a whole big piece will slide off when you take a bite.

Slide the pizza onto the preheated baking steel and let it bake for about 2-3 minutes. Then rotate it, and bake for an additional two minutes. Finally, pop it under the broiler for an additional minute to get it nice and browned on top.

While the pizza is in the oven, toss the baby arugula with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

As soon as the pizza comes out from under the broiler, top it with a generous amount of the salad mixture.

Definitely slice and serve this pizza immediately. The heat and oil from the pizza wilt the arugula, so you don't want the salad to sit too long on top of the pizza before eating.

Just like the best time to add fresh basil to pizza is right before serving, you want to add the salad last so it is still fresh, bright, and crunchy when you bite in!

Launching a Pizza Onto a Pizza Steel

To launch the pizza onto the baking steel, first give the pizza a good shimmy back and forth on the pizza peel. If any parts of it have stuck, gently lift up the edge and dust more semolina flour or all purpose flour under them.

Give the pizza another shimmy to make sure it's no longer stuck, then carefully slide (or "launch") the pizza off the peel and onto the pre-heated baking steel.

Place the tip of the peel about an inch or two from the back of the baking steel. Then tilt it down so the tip is resting on the steel and the pizza begins to slide off. Slide the peel straight back and out of the oven without picking the tip of the peel up off the steel. The pizza will slide off onto the steel.

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• I used an 8 oz (~220 gram) ball of pizza dough to make this pizza.
• You can put the prosciutto on after the pizza bakes. I do it before baking because I really like the crispy edges, and because the melty cheese helps secure the prosciutto to the pizza so it doesn't go sliding off when you pick up a slice.
• My favorite way to cook pizza is on a baking steel, which preheats on the top rack of the oven for an hour at 500°F before use. The baking steel absorbs that heat, which helps replicate the 800°F temps of a pizza oven.
• If you don't have a baking steel, follow the baking instructions for whatever pizza dough recipe you're using, rather than using my baking instructions.
• To transfer the pizza into the oven I use a 50/50 blend of semolina flour and all purpose flour (or just semolina flour). The semolina flour is a larger grain and helps the pizza roll off the wooden peel and onto the steel. If you don't have a pizza peel, put the pizza on a sheet of parchment paper and use the back of a sheet pan to slide it into the oven.
• IMPORTANT: Always give the assembled pizza a few good shimmies back and forth on it before launching to make sure the dough isn't stuck. If it is, gently pick up the stuck edge and dust some flour under it.

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