Pear & Goat Cheese Pizza
This Pear and Goat Cheese pizza has all of the delicious, delicate flavours that you look for in a gourmet pizza. There is the subtle flavour of the pear with the sharp saltiness from the prosciutto, both of which are complimented by the honey. The best part is getting a little hint of the tart goat cheese. Overall, this pizza is a great, light option for pizza night - bringing all of the delicious aspects of a pizza without the heaviness of gooey cheese and thick tomato sauce (both of which I definitely enjoy on occasion 😉).
I enjoyed this pizza with friends a few months ago and even though I just created it on the spot, I haven't stopped thinking about how yummy it was! I am all for sweet and savory together on pizza - (yes I am a pineapple on pizza kind of person 😋), so adding pears and honey to pizza seemed like a great idea!!
To keep this pizza simple, there is no sauce, just simply some garlic olive oil (or plain olive oil, its up to you), and some honey drizzled on the dough. I am planning on adding my pizza dough recipe to the blog soon, so stay tuned for that! For now I recommend using Gemma Staffords
, I have used it a few times and it has a really great flavour.
Directions
First, preheat the oven to 425F, then stretch out your dough to the shape you desire. I usually oil a baking sheet and then put the stretched dough on top of that - the oil helps to crisp up the bottom of the crust. I always just use my hands and gravity to stretch my dough, but you can use a rolling pin if that works best for you!
Once the dough is in place, drizzle some olive oil on top, either garlic or plain, and then drizzle honey on top of that. Feel free to rub the honey and oil into the dough, I like to do this to make sure it is spread evenly. Then I sprinkle a bit of coarse salt and add a crack of pepper around the pizza.
After the base is done, add slices of pear around the pizza, it looks best in a circle design. Once there is pear all over the pizza, add the prosciutto. I usually rip it up into smaller pieces, as it can be hard to rip up with your teeth! Making it bite sized is a nice way to ensure a perfect bite each time! I usually just sprinkle the pieces of prosciutto over top of the pears and cover any holes with it.
Now it is time for the goat cheese! I usually buy the herbed goat cheese, so I just take small dollops of that and place them evenly around the pizza. I don't like to crowd the pizza with the cheese, as it is only there to add a hint of tart to cut the sweet and salty. I prefer it to remain as a 'hint flavour' rather than a 'focus flavour'.
The last step is to sprinkle dried rosemary and slivered almonds on top. The rosemary is for flavour, and the almonds are for texture! These are optional, but I think that they add a really nice touch to the overall flavour profile! At this point, you can also drizzle extra honey on top if you like!
Bake it in the oven for 12-15 minutes - watch to see when the crust turns golden brown as that is when the pizza is done!
Pro-tip - simply remove the prosciutto to make this pizza a vegetarian option! With the tart flavour of the goats cheese, this pizza will still have a rounded flavour profile! In this case, you could also add parmiggiano-reggiano to bring another nutty, salty, element to the pizza.
Let me know if you try this recipe, & be sure to come back for more!
Thanks for reading,
Madison xx