Did you ever have a food that you love? Yeah, me too.
Did you ever have a food that you LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE??? Yeah, me too!
THIS is one of those foods that meets the latter statement. You know me and how I pride myself on being a pizza connoisseur, a true pizza snob. And how I preach that I’ve only ever found 1 pizza shop that makes a pizza that I truly love. Since someone ticked off Mother Nature here in Pittsburgh, the weather has been just nasty as nasty can be! We’re talking -15F with a windchill of -30F and snow. *side note: who ever ticked her off, please apologize to her, give her roses and chocolates…. OR ELSE! Don’t make me use the excavator on you. Kapeesh?” So yeah since it’s been butt-cold (official technical weather term) we haven’t been out for pizza. After a while you get sick of the same ol’ same ol’ flavors. I mean sure I push the limits – seriously who else would come up with a Thanksgiving Gobbler Pizza but me? Well the one day I did manage to get out and I’m so happy I did. See this is the time of year when you can buy fresh Medjool dates. I seriously, SERIOUSLY love those things. They are so unbelievably good for you plus they taste amazing! That natural sweetness is awesome! That being said I HAD to find a way to incorporate these beauties onto a pizza.
Now Mr. Fantabulous is traditional when it comes to pizza. He’s a ‘cheese only’ kinda guy or he’ll do the whole tomatoes/onions thing. But what’s funny is if I made a few slices with pepperoni for me, somehow he manages to “accidentally” take one or two of my slices. Doesn’t like pepperoni my behind! That man would eat cat food if I put it in pizza! However I decided to make this while he was out at the gym because 1 – I didn’t want to share and 2 – well, I didn’t want to share. LOL I made a small personal one just for me. I’ll definitely make another one this weekend for him to try.
This pizza is seriously one of my top 3 all time FAVORITES ever!
I’m telling you, one bite of this and you will fall in love! I love taking flavors that you would never EVER think of combining and almost creating a whole new flavor combination. This pizza works. No, this pizza works BEAUTIFULLY! Trust me on this.
Once I opened the container of the dates I had to taste one – I mean to see how sweet they were. Now if you’re never had a Medjool date, you have to pit them. The easiest way I’ve found it to make a slit lengthwise (not all the way through) and then just pop the pit out. The pit is about the size of a fat almond. As I popped one in my mouth I knew feta cheese would go beautifully with it. See normally I’ve had these dates in either a baked good or stuffed with a cheesy goodness and wrapped with bacon. So needless to say feta and bacon were a must on this. However I wanted …more. You know me by now, I NEED MORE!
Besides eating it plain, there is nothing more awesome than crispy bacon and caramelized onions. Now I’ll be honest I hadn’t ever thought to mix the two flavors – dates and onions but eh, I was throwing caution to the wind. Since onions, when caramelized, become super sweet I kind of figured it might work well with the dates. As the onions were starting to caramelize I tossed in the date slices and WOW the aroma was incredible! Sweet and um… caramely (go with it). The mixture became sorta stick/tacky if you will from all of the natural sugars.
So I lightly brushed the flatbread with some oil spread, out the onion date mixture, topped with bacon and feta. Since all of the ingredients were already cooked, all I needed to do was heat up the pizza. Since feta normally doesn’t melt like mozzarella I just baked it until it was warmed through and the feta was soft to the touch.
As I took the pizza out and placed it on the cutting board it looked well, plain. It needed a contrasting color. Now for me right now my go-to green is arugula though you could easily have used spinach on this. However there’s something snobby about arugula and this pizza is more upscale thus it deserved to be snobby.
I added on the arugula and cut away. It was great but….but…
yeah, it was missing that flavor to marry it all together. The flavors were almost too separate. There wasn’t that thing to bring it all together in one harmonious love pie. Wait, did I just use the phrase “harmonious love pie???’ WTH? yeah, I’m shaking my own head at that one! LOL So I set the pizza down and did a quick eye search around the kitchen. AH HA! That was it! See I buy honey in the 5lb containers. I love it in my tea, on pork, in baked goods or just when I want a quick sweet – by the spoon.
I drizzled honey over top. Not only did it make this pizza ‘pop’ visually but the flavor was PERFECT in every single way!
Now for some of you this may be pushing you out of your comfort zone when it comes to pizzas but I’m telling you, one bite and you will LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It’s beyond amazing!
PrintCaramelized Medjool Date Pizza
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Ingredients
- 4 – 8” Grilled Flatbread Pizza Shells *See note
- 20 Medjool dates, pitted and sliced into 1/4” strips
- 8 slices crispy bacon, rough cut
- 1 1/2 cups yellow onion, cut into small pieces
- 1 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 3 1/2 tablespoon avocado or extra virgin olive
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 cups feta, crumbled
- 1 heaping cup of baby arugula (taste for bitterness)
- Honey for drizzling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F, rack in the middle.
- Place the flatbread pizza shellson a baking sheet.
- In a medium skillet over medium heat add the butter and 1 1/2 tablespoon of oil.
- When the butter begins to bubble slightly, add in the onions and gently mix around to coat.
- Cook for ~5 minutes stirring often.
- Add in the sugar and stir.
- Cook for another 9-15 minutes or until the onions become soft and start to slightly turn to a caramel color. Watch your heat so they don’t burn.
- Add in the date slices and give a stir coating the dates with the liquids from the onions, butter and oil. If it’s dry add in a teaspoon or so of oil and mix.
- Cook for ~3-5 minutes or until the dates become a bit more soft and the onions have started to caramelize. There really shouldn’t be much (if any) liquid in the pan. It should be wet/tacky to the touch but there should be no liquid swimming around.
- Evenly divide the onion date mixture on top of each pizza leaving a 1/2” edge all the way around.
- Add the bacon and feta on top.
- Bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and plate.
- Garnish each pizza with some of the baby arugula and then drizzle with honey (about 1-2 tablespoon each pizza). If the arugula is bitter I’ll tend to add a bit more honey.
Notes
If you didn’t have pre-made flat bread pizzas you could easily make this using my Best Pizza Dough. Follow those baking instructions on how to bake the pizza but use this recipe to make the onion date mixture and how to top the pizza before baking and after.
Paola Moreno says
It was absolutely delicious, and a super win among all my friends! Thank you so much😍
TKWAdmin says
So happy you loved it; thank you!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Colleen Koster says
Really delightful! Sweet and savory. Changed the arugula out for sautéed kale just bc that’s what I had, and added some Burrata on top after it was cooked. Thanks so much for the recipe!
TKWAdmin says
Oh I love the kale swap! So happy you loved it, thank you!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
MLM says
Dee licious!!!!
ashok says
My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.
Jodi says
We’ve made this pizza quite a few times and love it. Well balanced and it’s delicious!!
Donna Roach says
How about a drizzle of balsamic…white or dark?
TKWAdmin says
Hi Donna!
You could most certainly do that but for me I’d probably make a balsamic reduction first then drizzle it in.
What do you think?
Best Kitchen Wishes!