The Chef Within

This is a favorite pizza of mine and was inspired by the popular salad using pears, pistachios and gorgonzola.  The combination of flavors is so interesting I thought…why not turn it into a pizza. In a nutshell…the pizza consists of a roasted garlic aioli as a base on the crust, pears, pistachios (or some nut), prosciutto (or some salted meat), gorgonzola cheese, mozarella and some basil dressing (or something similar). 

What caused me to think about this pizza at this particular time is that I found myself with some leftover summer sausage.  I wanted to use it up and so I used it in place of the prosciutto.  It isn’t quite pear season so I resorted to the canned and I didn’t have pistachios so I used lightly toasted pecans.  This is how I cook…substitute everything.

I typically have grilled pizza crusts on hand and so I started with those.  You can buy store bought or really use any crust that you like.

Spread some aioli (refer to post on how to make roasted garlic aioli). 

Next you can use your prosciutto or cured meat.  I’m using the summer sausage cut in small dices.  You can omit the sausage if you prefer a meatless pizza.  Just use extra nuts and gorgonzola. 

continue by adding nuts….

Then you add the pears.  This step is rather critical.  You will want a substantial slice of pear to offer enough pear flavor.  If there are good, ripe pears in season those of course would be your first choice but if the fresh are not ripe then you should resort to the canned. 

Place a good number of pear slices in a concentrical circle around the crust.

Then the gorgonzola and mozarella.  I like to finish the whole thing with a drizzle of homemade basil dressing but I’m sure there are many store bought dressings that would provide the same “bite” that the basil does.  Take to preheated 400 oven and let them bake until the cheese is melted and golden around the edges.  Cut and serve.