Pear pizza
Pear pizza with red onion, blue cheese and mixed baby greens
Pears are fruit - everybody knows that. But in a happy turn of events, they're not limited to use in desserts. In fact, in my book they're best in savory dishes. And it doesn't get any better than a pear pizza.
Your tastes change over the years, and what you like in one decade may be just about as appealing 10 or 12 years later as the haircut you modeled after that Thursday night TV show. But this is one dish that is just as popular in our house as it was when we first started making it back around the turn of the millenium. Here's where I have to admit that once upon a time I ate at chain restaurants. We don't need to talk about that except to say that my husband and I discovered pear pizza at an outpost of California Pizza Kitchen. And immediately decided to figure out how to make it at home. I can safely say it is the single most often made dish in the history of our cooking life together. We even planted a pear tree in our yard, which has yet to really produce, but I'm holding out hope.
The combination of caramelized pears and red onions with the crunchy hazelnuts, gooey cheese, tangy homemade blue cheese dressing and crisp greens all on a pizza crust (we use dough from Lotsa Pasta in Louisville) is nothing short of perfect. I think it might be my choice for last meal. We don't make it a lot in the summer because who wants to turn on the oven when it's hot out, but when my visit to Capstone Produce auction where I somehow ended up buying five bags of pears (look for the story in the November issue) coincided with cooler evenings, I knew pear pizza season had arrived. If you have access to some good pears, give it a try, and see if you become as addicted to it as I am.
Pear Pizza
Ingredients:
- 3 to 4 pears, thinly sliced
- 1/2 a red onion, finely chopped
- Dough for 1 pizza crust
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 2 cups mozzarella and/or provolone cheese
- A little blue cheese
- Blue cheese dressing (homemade, please!)
- Handful chopped hazelnuts
- Mixed baby greens
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 Fahrenheit
- Melt butter over medium high heat
- Add pears and red onion; cook over medium high heat until pears are caramelized
- Roll out pizza dough and place on a preheated pizza stone
- Bake the crust for 5 minutes
- Remove pizza crust from oven and top with pear and onion mixture and mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles and chopped hazelnuts
- Bake until cheese bubbles and is lightly browned around the edges
- Top with greens and blue cheese.
And maybe go plant a pear tree, too.