Friday, January 15, 2010

This is my favorite pizza, what's yours?



My favorite pizza has the following toppings: pear, gorgonzola, mozzarella, and carmelized onions. It is somehow the perfect combination of sweet, salty, savory, nutty, cheesy, and meaty. Yes meaty. Not sure how this vegetarian combo imparts a meatiness. Perhaps it comes from the thick, soft but firm pears, or the umami imparted from the blue cheese. In reality, it does not matter if I can pinpoint what it is that I absolutely love about it -- I just love it and that's all that matters.
Here is how to make it:

  • 1 high quality pizza dough -- from scratch or from your local pizza parlor
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 ripe, but firm pear, such as Red d'anjou, sliced into 1/8" slivers
  • 1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 cup high quality mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 1/4 cup high quality blue cheese, such as gorgonzola, crumbled
Start by slowly caramelizing the onion in about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the honey, over low heat. This will take about 1/2 an hour, so be patient.

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 500 degrees.

Roll out your dough to desired thickness, and place atop your pizza stone. Working quickly, brush the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil onto the top of the dough, add cheeses, pears, and onions. Return the pizza stone, and pizza to the oven, and bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the pizza is brown and the dough is cooked through. If you do not have a pizza stone, an upside down cast iron skillet also works great, or simply use a good old fashion cookie sheet.

Enjoy!!!

If you want to make your own pizza dough here is how to go about it:

  • 1 packet dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Dissolve 1 packet of dry yeast in 3/4 cup warm water and 1 tablespoon honey, and let rest about 3 minutes. In a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, slowly add about 2 1/2 cups flour to the yeasty water, with the machine on low. You should actually add just enough flour for the dough to form a ball, this may be more or less than 2 1/2 cups of flour. At this point add 1 tablespoon kosher salt, and continue mixing/kneading for another 10 minutes to develop the gluten. The reason not to add the salt in the beginning, is because a salty mixture will actually retard the growth of yeast. After kneading for 10 minutes, pull the dough from the dough hook, form into a ball, coat with olive oil and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. At this point you are ready to roll out your pizza dough!

4 comments:

  1. that looks delish. love that combo. you kind of had me at carmelized onions. this is my fave pizza right now: http://lainbloom.blogspot.com/2009/12/comforting-pizza.html

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  2. We tried this and love it. My eight-year-old -- not an adventurous eater -- especially enjoyed it.

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  3. Yummy! The kind of pizza topping I absolutely love is a super cheesy one. My wife actually has a special pizza recipe that she invented for me. I call it “four cheese pizza” because it is topped with four different cheeses that are combined with the juicy taste of pineapple. I’d love to try your recipe.

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  4. I like my pizza meaty and cheesy too, and in that case, I find your favorite pizza really mouth-watering. It doesn’t matter if you can’t explain why you love it, I just love it the way it is. And I guess that’s just how taste and preference works. Anyway, thank you for sharing the recipe!

    Shaun Leonard @ Vocelli Pizza

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