Thursday, March 04, 2010

Mar 5th - Catch-Up Blue Cheese and Pear Pizza with Organic Arugula


Whenever you see Catch-Up in the title it means it is a dinner I had last fall that I was unable to blog due to work or an annoyed D or a combination thereof. I'll do this on nights where I have leftovers, mostly. I was trying double checking just now if I had posted this one and I just noticed that not only did I fall behind in the fall, I did not post at all in October. Brutal.

Making pizza at home is so easy and much more creative. To boot, you can heap on all the extra toppings you like. We actually made three pizza's this night but I'll just mention the star. But D's antipasti pizza was a mountain of topping barely supported by the cracker thing crust. :-P

First, make the dough. Pizza Dough is our standard that D has been using for ages. You can do this the night before or just hours before. It also freezes well. If you do, freeze in pizza sized portions. This dough makes a loverly cracker thin crust. If you like doughs that are a bit more biscuity or like pizza hut, you can use a biscuit dough recipe or do not roll it out as thin as we do. We roll it out to the thick ness of a bedsheet.

Preheat the oven to 450.

Blue Cheese and Pear Pizza with Organic Arugula

Roll your dough to fit a large baking sheet. We use two sheets between 11" x 17" or 10"x15"

1 - 2 ripe pear, any variety, halved and sliced
1/4 red onion sliced paper thin with a mandolin
1/2 c crumbled stilton or good strong blue cheese
1 - 2 T fresh thyme or oregathyme
1 c grated mozzarella
2 c fresh washed baby arugula.... you can use much less but I would not.

We used a Claire Bleu from the Farmer's market. It was quite strong which I loved and D thought was a bit strong but it does not stand alone and works well on this pie.

Spread the mozzarella in a thin single layer. Arrange the pear slices evenly around the pizza. Do the same with the thin onion slices.

Crumble the blue cheese and spread evenly or in bunches around the the pears. Your choice. Then sprinkle the herbs over.

I rolled the dough out larger than the sheet I was using so I could fold over the edges like a tart after the toppings were on.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Watch. You want to melt the cheese and brown the dough but not burn. At least 10 to ensure you cook the centre of the dough. Bake in the bottom third of the oven.

Pull from the oven and carefully move to a cutting board with two spatula. Top with the cold arugula and serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

This pizza is incredible... YUUUUUMMMO!

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