D'Anjou Pear & Pesto Pizza

As I sit at the kitchen table writing cover letters, looking out on the cold, gray, rainy day I decide it's time to spice up my afternoon and make... pizza! A quick jaunt down to Bi-Rite for dough and this pizza is already halfway done.

Basil is back on the shelves at the store so the pesto pizza options are endless!
I bought a couple pears earlier in the week and decided to make a sweet-meets-savory pizza for myself and my roommates - depending on how generous I want to be. This simple pizza will have you and your lunch mates/dinner guests/fellow Super Bowl viewers watering at the mouth.

D'Anjou Pear & Pesto Pizza

Ingredients

Pre-made pizza dough, I used whole wheat dough from Bi-Rite

Pesto, my homemade recipe is here

1 D'Anjou pear, thinly sliced

Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Directions

**Follow directions according to your specific pizza dough label.  

Preheat oven to 500°F. Lightly flour your pizza stone or work surface and roll out the dough. 

Add a hefty dollop of pesto to the center of the dough and spread the sauce outwards, using the back of a spoon and working in a circular motion.

Layer the pear slices onto the pesto. This doesn't need to have any rhyme or reason to it, I just started in the middle and made a sunburst.

Next, add as much or as little cheese as your heart desires and bake for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden.

And here is the finished thing!

Thin crust, flavorful pesto, sweet pear, and a little tang from the cheese... mmmmmmm

Hope you enjoy! 

Pineapple Pizza

Who doesn't like pizza?

     Honestly, who?

Making it yourself, while it may appear daunting, is actually rather easy. You need patience and yeast. Everything else is basic and you should already have in your kitchen.

That said, let's do it!

Pineapple Pizza and Homemade Pizza Dough

     Dough adapted from Marlio Batali's Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking

     Prep time: 90 minutes

Pizza Dough Ingredients

1¼ cups warm water

1 – ¼ oz. package active dry yeast

1½ tsp sugar

3½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

¼ cup olive oil

Semolina or flour for dusting

Topping

1½ cups pasta sauce

grated cheese

thawed frozen pineapple chunks

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk warm water, yeast, and sugar together. Let stand in a warm place for ten minutes. Yeast will be foamy.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Make a small well in the center of the mixture and pour the wet ingredients inside. Using a wooden spoon stir all together until the mixture becomes too thick. Now, you're going to get messy.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface, knead the dough with your hands until combined, smooth, and slightly sticky.

You want your dough to look like this: 

Transfer your dough into a large oiled bowl (you can use PAM), cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour plus. The dough will double in size. 

Rolling out your dough is super easy if you have a pizza stone and only slightly trickier if you will be baking your pizza on a rectangular cookie sheet.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour your pizza stone or cookie sheet and rolling pin. Starting from the center of the dough roll out your pizza dough. 

See? Simple.

Transfer pizza dough into the oven and pre bake for 5 minutes, just until the top begins to color.

Remove the pizza stone from the oven and ladle 2 large spoonfuls of tomato sauce onto the crust. Working from the center outwards, using the back of your spoon spread the sauce outwards until you have a thin layer  covering the crust. Add your pineapple slices followed by the cheese and finally any spices or additional toppings.

Return pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is brown and crisp, about 15-20 minutes.

Let pizza cool on pizza stone for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!