Dinner Nov 9, 2024
Note: I try not to use raw toppings on my pizzas since it usually leads to excess moisture and grease. The pear slices were pretty low moisture, so you might be able to get away with skipping giving them a quick sear, but I'd still let them sit on a paper towel.
I originally wanted prosciutto for this, but Aldi didn't have any so we had to make due with what was available. I'm not upset with how the salami worked out, but prosciutto still would have been nice.
Ingredients:
3 Asian Pears
1 sprig Rosemary
Water
4 slices of Genoa Salami
Trader Joe's Manchego Anejo Cheese
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fine Grain Sea Salt
Ghost Pepper Honey
Directions:
Cut each pear in half, then center cut two ⅛ inch thick slices from each half. Trim away any seeds, steam, and calyx (the thing on the opposite side of the fruit from the stem, where the flower was).
Dice the remaining pieces of pear and carefully use a paring knife to cut the skin off each piece. Don't worry about how much flesh you trim off too. Then roughly mince.
Cut the salami into thin strips and shred ⅔ of the cheese wedge.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add half of the pear slices to the dry skillet and sear for about a minute on each side. Remove from skillet and place on a piece of paper towel to absorb any extra juices. Repeat for the other pear slices.
Add the minced pear to the same hot skillet and enough water to just cover the bottom of the skillet. Also add the whole rosemary sprig. Cook down pears until soft and kind of resembles applesauce. Remove a good pinch of rosemary leaves from the stem and keep in the sauce, discard the remaining stem. Pour the sauce into a cup that will fit your immersion blender.
In the same skillet, add the salami strips and give them a quick fry until they get crispy. Remove from skillet onto paper towel with pears.
Add olive oil to the cup with the pearsauce, ¼ teaspoon of salt, and then blend with immersion blender into an emulsified sauce.
Preheat your oven as high as it can go with a Baking Steel on the bottom rack for an hour.
Divide the dough in half. Stretch each half into a small circle, 10-12 inch diameter. Spread half of the sauce over each rolled-out crust. Top each pizza with half of the salami, shredded cheese, and sliced pears.
Bake each pizza until the crust starts to brown and the cheese bubbles, 7-10 minutes in my oven set to 550°F (290°C).
Drizzle with hot honey, cut, and eat!
Final Notes:
The sauce was fine, but has room for improvement. I think I only added about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt to the pearsauce. There were a few rosemary leaves left in the sauce, but I didn't add any additional. Changes I would make if making again are written into the recipe.
After tasting how sweet the pearsauce was, I liked the hot hot drizzle more than I expected to. I thought it was just going to make it even sweeter, but it didn't. And as expected, the heat was a nice addition.
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