Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

mmmmmm pizza... Is there anyone out there who does not like pizza? If there is, I'm not friends with them.

I am a pizza non-discriminator. I take pizza of all shapes, sizes, toppings, and quality.
As a kid, pizza day was the bee's knees because my school ordered it from Brick Oven who must have used equal parts sugar and tomatoes in their sauce, an obvious draw for the under-ten crowd.
My parents, on the occasions my mom gave in to take out pizza (or was out of town!) ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, which has always had the best re-heat flavour and texture - crispy, without attaining that weird chewiness some get if microwaved.
Panago won me over late in university as I began discovering roasted garlic as a topping (shockingly late in the game considering how garlic is basically an adopted member of my family).

Then we moved to Halifax and I discovered Morris East...

If you live in Halifax, or at any point in your life visit Halifax (and I highly recommend it), you must go to Morris East for pizza.

It's the brainchild of a childhood friend of my lovely friend Kate. The wood fire oven was brought back from Italy and takes up about a sixth of the entire floor space of the original location downtown. And they cook everything in it! Seriously, right down to dessert (and how does a giant s'more tickle your fancy?).

The menu changes seasonally, but my absolute favourite is the pear pizza (in winter) which becomes peach in the summer. Sweet fruit, salty prosciutto, tangy goat cheese and balsamic drizzle... Pardon the drool.

A second location of deliciousness recently opened in our neighbourhood (and I squealed when it happened), but since I tend to not go to restaurants when Hubby is out of town, I decided when a craving came on a couple of days ago that I had to make my own at home.

We started making a lot of really delicious pizza at home when I discovered Smitten Kitchen's pizza crust. The recipe is available on her website, but it's also in her cookbook which I can whole-heartedly recommend you purchase. Every recipe I've ever made in it is absolutely fabulous, it's in my top three cookbooks of all time! However, if you prefer you can use store-bought pizza dough/crust, or go wild and use a pita; heck, just throw everything on top of some lettuce, anything goes!

This pizza does take a little bit of effort in the preparation of ingredients (steps 1-4), however, this can be done days ahead of time and the results can be kept in the fridge for a week or so, and used in a myriad of dishes. The balsamic syrup alone can top most things, especially vanilla ice cream with strawberries. Trust...

Pear Prosciutto Pizza

This pizza "recipe" is obviously very adjustable. Want more cheese? Use it. Rather have bacon? Props. This is merely a delicious starting point. If you're looking for a drippy, cheesy, guilty pizza though, this isn't it.

Yield: one pizza, enough to serve 2-4 people depending on appetite

Ingredients:

One pizza crust

Roasted garlic:

      One head of garlic

      Olive oil

One pear (I use bosc)

Red wine

3-4 slices of prosciutto or Serrano ham, chopped or torn into pieces

1/3 cup shredded Romano or parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chevre

12-14 grape tomatoes

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300F; remove the papery outer skin and slice top off of the head of garlic and place it in a small baking dish (ie a ramekin). Pour in enough olive oil to just cover all the cloves and cover with a piece of tinfoil. Bake for 45 minutes. When finished, allow to cool, then gently squeeze out the cloves. Store garlic and oil in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week.
2. On a separate, parchment-lined pan scatter the tomatoes; drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roast with garlic until tomatoes burst and get soft and sweet... mmmmm...
3. While garlic and tomatoes are roasting, pour 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan and heat over med-hi until simmering. Allow to simmer until reduced by about 1/2 (roughly 10 minutes); remember that it will be much thicker once cooled, so don't expect a syrupy consistency right away. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside (optional: make a larger amount of syrup and store in a squeeze bottle in the fridge for 1-2 weeks).
4. Rinse out saucepan and return to the stove; peel the pear, halve and core it, and add it to the pot, with enough red wine to cover. Bring to a simmer and poach until soft, about 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, slice.
5. Once all your toppings are ready, preheat the over to 475F. If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven while warming up, if not, use a large cookie sheet. Either way, sprinkle with cornmeal.
6. I highly recommend doing an initial cooking of the pizza crust for 2-3 minutes, especially as all the toppings are pre-cooked. This helps it cook all the way through quickly, and also makes it easier to transfer the dressed pizza to the oven. After the 2-3 minutes, flip the crust over to dress it.
7. Spread a few cloves of roasted garlic out on the pizza crust and drizzle on some of the oil.
8. Scatter the Romano cheese over, followed by the pears, prosciutto, and tomatoes. Lastly, crumble the chevre over everything.
9. Transfer the pizza to the oven and roast for about 8-10 minutes, until the cheeses are melted and the crust is golden and crunchy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before slicing.
10. Just before slicing the pizza, drizzle on the balsamic syrup. If desired, top with a bit of arugula or spring mix tossed in olive oil and salt.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm.........