A soft, fluffy crust topped with pesto, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, greens, and balsamic reduction. This homemade Prosciutto Caprese Skillet Pizza is just as tasty as takeout!
Homemade Pizza
My kids love asking for pizza for dinner. I say ‘asking for’ instead of ‘eating’ because it’s a 50/50 chance if they’ll actually eat it.
Given that; (1) my children don’t always eat it despite requesting it, (2) picking up pizza with a 2 and 4 year old can be a nightmare, (3) pizza delivery is expensive, and (4) I don’t really eat cheese, I decided a while back that making my own pizza was the way to go.
Pizza Night
We now have skillet pizza night every week or two at our house. I divide the crust three ways so that I have a small one that will be the cheese pizza for my kids to maybe or maybe not eat, a medium sized one with minimal cheese for myself, and a larger one with all sorts of things for my husband.
These pizza nights have become a staple dinner in our house. I’ll often look up pizza menus from upscale pizza joints I know of and try to recreate them. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
Prosciutto Caprese Skillet Pizza
Last week I had some girlfriends over for dinner and made a few skillet pizzas to share, one of which was Prosciutto Caprese. They all asked for the recipe, and I was shocked to realize I hadn’t yet shared it here! So, here it is. It starts with my family’s regular crust recipe and adds my go-to toppings.
Tips for making this pizza:
- This recipe uses Instant Yeast. You will be sad and have a fairly flat pizza if you follow these directions but accidentally use Active Dry Yeast.
- If your dough is too dry, add a few splashes of water. If it’s too wet, add some more flour, about a 1/2 tablespoon at a time.
- Despite using the same recipe every single time I make this, I inevitably end up adding either a splash of water of few pinches of flour depending on how the dough is behaving on a particular day.
- When stretching the dough for the crust, if you end up with a few holes, pinch a bit off the slides to patch them. The toppings will cover your patch work so it will never be seen.
- This recipe is intended for the crust to be baked in a cast iron skillet. I have baked this on a cookie sheet, but when I have, I have cut the heat down to 375 degrees, placed the cookie sheet on the top rack of the oven and watched it closely while it bakes.
- I often bake 3 pizzas at a time, but fair warning: the pizza on the bottom rack finishes cooking about 3-4 minutes before the ones on the top rack, and the bottom gets much crispier.
Prosciutto Caprese Skillet Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup warm water NOT hot (should be about 100-110 degrees)
- 1 1.25 ounce package Instant Yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Toppings
- 1/4 cup pesto
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese cut into thin slices (~1/3″ thick)
- 1 Roma tomato cut into thin slices (~1/3″ thick)
- ~1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup arugula gently packed
- 2 ounces thin Prosciutto slices each slice cut into about 4 pieces
- balsamic reduction
Instructions
- In base of a stand mixer fit with dough attachment, stir together warm water, yeast, sugar, flour, salt, olive oil, and Italian seasoning until a ball of dough forms. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in flour, about 1/2 tablespoon at a time. And if the dough is too dry, add a splash or two of water.
- Spray a bowl with baking spray and place dough ball in bowl. Turn dough so that all sides become covered in spray from being rolled in bowl. Cover bowl with a dish towel and let rise in a draft free area for about 1 hour.
- After dough has risen for an hour, preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Punch down dough and divide in half. If not making two pizzas, you can wrap the second half in plastic wrap and freeze.
- Stretch one half of dough to evenly cover the inside of a 12″ cast iron skillet.
- Spread pesto over dough. Place tomato slices on top of pesto. Sprinkle each slice of tomato with a pinch of kosher salt. Then, place mozzarella evenly over top of pizza.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the crust has risen and has started to brown. I recommend that you cook the pizza on the top rack of your oven. Time will vary depending on type of oven and placement in oven.
- Remove skillet from oven. Divide Prosciutto evenly over the top of the pizza, followed by the arugula. Drizzle balsamic reduction over the top of entire pizza.
If you enjoyed this Prosciutto Caprese Skillet Pizza, you might enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Strawberry Pesto Skillet Pizza
Lasagna Style Potstickers
Tomato Basil Chicken Pasta
Skillet Bacon Cheese Rolls
Mild Blackened Skillet Chicken
