Homemade pizza Friday: Pear pizza

Posted by Dana McMahan on February 9, 2008

Friday night in my house is homemade pizza night. We make batches of dough in the bread machine and stow them in the freezer to be pulled out, topped with goodies and baked on Fridays after a long work week.

The topping decision goes something like this:

Me: I want pear pizza

Him: We’ve had that the last three Fridays

Me: But I lo-o-o-o-o-o-v-e it.

Repeat until we agree on pear pizza. (Sometimes bribes are involved)

We discovered California Pizza Kitchen’s (now discontinued) Pear and Gorgonzola pizza a few years ago in Chicago and happily tried it with their “if you don’t like it we’ll bring your favorite for free” guarantee. I loved it. Some time later, back home, we were tossing around ideas for homemade pizza while driving to the farmer’s market. It happened to be the season for pears and we decided to recreate CPK’s pizza.

After years of trial, here’s our tried and true version.

You’ll need
Three pears, thinly sliced
Half a red onion, finely chopped
One pizza crust (follow your bread maker recipe book’s instructions)
Half a stick of butter
Two cups mozzarella and/or provolone cheese
Blue cheese dressing
Small handful chopped hazelnuts
4 oz. mixed baby greens

• Melt butter over medium high heat
• Add pears and red onion
• Cook over medium high heat at least 10-12 minutes until it smells incredible
• Preheat oven to 450 Fahrenheit
• Roll out pizza dough and place on a preheated pizza stone
• Bake just the crust 4-5 minutes
• Remove from oven and top with caramelized pear and onion mixture, 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 serve with blue cheese dressing for dipping.

Guaranteed good or your favorite pizza is free!

Ça vaut le voyage, Dana

TAGS: Cheese, Dana, Homemade, Pizza
POST TOOLS: