Date and Prosciutto Pizza

Tonight's pizza is most definitely a favorite!  The  recipe was adapted from Alton Brown's grilled pizza three ways.  Our previous attempts at grilling pizza were a tad frustrating, so I played around with the recipe a bit and baked it in the oven.  I love Alton's recipes and he said this was his favorite pizza topping in the show I was watching, but I still was thinking about the sweet dates.  I keep saying I don't like sweet and savory, but it seems that that is really not true.  Everyone in the family adored this pizza. We would be eating and talking and all of a sudden someone would say man this really good or make the yummy sound!  

Date and Prosciutto Pizza

1 lb pizza dough
7 ounces fresh mozzarella,cut  into 1/4-inch thick slices
1-2  teaspoons olive oil
1/2-ounce grated Parmesan
1 ounce prosciutto ham approximately 3 slices, coarsely chopped
4 whole dates,pitted and finely chopped
1t  fresh thyme leaves


Layer 2 paper towels on a plate and lay the mozzarella slices in a single layer. Top with 2 more paper towels, a second plate, and a 2 pound weight. Set aside at room temperature for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Roll out the dough in to a 16" circle. Put the dough on the stone and let bake 3 minutes. (Mine puffed up, but this was supposed to be a grilled pizza and we just didn't want to try it again tonight.;) Take out the dough and stone and flip the dough. (if yours puffed up too, make a couple of stabs at it with a knife to deflate it before you flip) Once flipped, drizzle the olive oil over the pizza, sprinkle the Parmesan, arrange the mozzarella, sprinkle the dates and prosciutto and the thyme.  (I thought mine looked a little naked so I did use a hand full of shredded mixed Italian cheeses, but when it came out I think I really didn't need it and it wasn't very much) Return to the oven and bake 2-3 more minutes or until all is melted and gooey.