Peach Pizza! Yes, I said Peach Pizza!

Have I mentioned before that we have fruit trees in our yard?  And that they somehow have survived 8 years of my neglect...  Well one of those trees is a dwarf peach, although I'm unsure of the actual variety.  It has beautiful red "marbled" flesh instead of the standard bright yellow, and tend to be very sweet.  I harvested the last two for the season yesterday and wanted to celebrate my "harvest" in style.

I considered doing another crisp like I did a few weeks back.  (Recipe here!)  But decided to embrace the fresh fruit and instead just cut them up, sprinkled some raw sugar, and chilled them for a refreshing, after dinner dessert!  How pretty does that look?

But I still needed to make dinner!  And figured I'd just stay in a Peachy mood with a summertime Peach Pizza.  We had mozzarella, basil, and baby heirloom tomatoes left over from our Caprese Pasta a few nights back, and it was like everything was just falling into place for a refreshing summer pizza.  A quick call to the hubby to pick up some more peaches, prosciutto, and pizza dough, and we were set.  If you have never made pizza before, don't freak out.  It seriously couldn't be more simple.  Your local grocery store or italian deli should have fresh dough in their fridge section, ready for the oven!

Ingredients

• Your favorite, fresh Pizza dough
• 1 large peach- sliced
• handful of heirloom tomatoes- sliced
• fresh mozzarella (we used the baby bite sized, but slices of larger balls would work well too!)
• fresh basil
• Prosciutto
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• Shaved parmesan for garnish
• Spinach & Arugula mix as a bed (skip if you want to JUST eat pizza.)

Directions

1. Begin by reducing your balsamic.  This is done by heating over a medium flame until it just begins to bubble, and then reducing to a simmer to allow the liquid to burn off and the vinegar to become thick.  This takes about 30 minutes.  Just watch it and stir occasionally as you do all the steps below.  (*I used a cup to reduce to about 1/3 cup, but really it was too much.  Even with Josh using some as a dippy dip for the pizza later, I poured some out during clean up.  The problem is, that using less means you risk burning it during the reduction process...so use less at your own risk!)
2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees (yes I know that's hot!  But you are creating a "pizza oven.")
3. Let your pizza grill or stone pre-heat in your oven.
4. Slice your peaches, tomatoes, prosciutto, and mozzerella (if you have a bigger ball of mozz.)  Set aside.
5. On a floured surface, massage your dough outwards with your fingers, starting from the middle and moving around the dough in a circle.  You want the edges to end up a bit thicker than the middle to ensure it cooks more evenly.  I went with a thicker crust and the dough was about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Carefully remove your HOT grill from the oven, add a thin layer of olive oil with a brush (pouring it will just slide right off in a big puddle, trust me) and transfer your pizza dough to the surface.  I find that folding your dough in half (taco style) and then once more in half, will allow you to quickly move it to the grill, and then unfold it without stretching it out, losing the shape, poking holes, or burning yourself on the grill.
7. Lightly grease the dough, add your mozzarella, and place in the oven.
8. Bake for about 5 minutes until you see the cheese melting.
9. If large bubbles appear in your dough, it's best to poke/pop them real quick to keep the surface fairly flat.
10. Add the peaches, tomatoes, and prosciutto.
11. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the dough is golden. (You should a have total bake time according to the directions on your dough)
12. Cut the basil (I demo how to make it fancy and chiffonade it on the Caprese Pasta Post here.)
13. Remove your pizza from the oven.
14. Top with your fancy basil.
15. Sprinkle your balsamic over top with a spoon.  (Don't drop spoon fulls, but dip your spoon in the balsamic and let the liquid simply drizzle off.
16. Sprinkle some fresh shaved parmesan. 
17. Create a bed of arugula & spinach on a plate, drizzle with balsamic, and top with a wonderful slice of pizza!