Fig and Prosciutto Pizza

For Pizza Dough: "Start" the yeast by mixing it with the sugar and water for about 7 to 10 minutes.

Put the yeast, sugar and water mixture in your stand up mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Add the flour, olive oil, and salt. Start the machine and let mix until a dough ball forms.

Stop the machine and let the dough rest for 3 minutes. Pulse the machine three times. Flour the counter and put the dough on the floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes.

Coat a medium-sized bowl with some olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl, then turn the dough over, so that both sides are covered with a film of oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Put the bowl in a warm place for 2 hours so the dough can rise.

After 2 hours, punch the dough in the middle to deflate. Put it on a floured counter. Cut the dough in half, and freeze one half for future use. Roll the other half into a ball and cover it with the bowl for thirty minutes.

For Fig and Prosciutto Pizza: Toast the fennel seeds in a hot, dry pan-about for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Heat your oven to 475 degrees F with a pizza stone on the highest rack. Use a cookie sheet pan that has no edges. Cover it well with Wondra flour or cornmeal. Roll out the dough to the size of the pizza stone.

Transfer the dough onto the floured sheet pan. Spread out a layer of prosciutto, then the figs, on the dough. Sprinkle the pizza with the toasted fennel. Transfer the pizza to the pizza stone by putting the sheet pan on the stone and quickly pulling the tray away, so the pizza slides.

Bake for 5 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown. Remove the pizza from the stone by using the sheet pan and a big spatula.

Just before serving, put the pizza onto a cutting board. Drizzle it well with the extra virgin olive oil and cut it in to squares.