Red Pear, Blue Cheese and Walnut Pizza

I saw my brother last Friday and he gave me the most awesome birthday present : this absolutely gorgeous olive oil and this superb white wine vinegar.

The timing was absolutely perfect, for I had pizza on the menu for the week-end, which I was planning on topping with a handful of arugula slightly dressed with… olive oil, lemon zest and vinegar!

Another fairly good timing was my stumbling upon this recipe. I was happy with my usual pizza dough, but not ecstatic. I mean it was good, but a little too doughy for my taste. I wanted something with a little more crisp and crunch. Now this new one really delivers! While not perfect as is, it’s still a major improvement! Now I have a serious base to work with.

It does require a little bit of work, well, no, not work… prep and thinking ahead of time. I had to get that one started when I got home in the middle of the night on Saturday. I had my mind set on giving it a try that week-end and it was the only way this was going to happen… I refused to wait for the next pizza.

Thank goodness it doesn’t take that long to get the dough started. Not being familiar with the recipe, however, resulted in a lot of questioning and hesitation. For instance, I expected the soaker to be a lot looser than it actually is. But alas, both the soaker and the biga looked exactly the same when done. The only way I could think of to be certain I would be able to tell them apart the next day was to remember that I had put the biga in a bigga’ bowl. Yeah, I know…  go easy on me, please… middle of the night, remember?

Also, the recipe doesn’t say to let the dough rise after forming the tight little balls. I thought it very odd and decided to let mine rise for about an hour and a half, and I am sure it could’ve used another half hour.

All this work resulted in a light and crispy pizza dough. I was fairly impressed, especially since it’s made entirely from whole wheat flour and doesn’t call for the addition of gluten flour.

As for the toppings I chose to use? Oh my YUM! Even better than the apple version I did not so long ago. This was by far my ultimate favourite pizza ever! (I know, I know, I say that every time…) The addition of arugula, with the hint of lemon and the freshly grated nutmeg. OH! I can’t even find the words. Don’t they say a picture is worth a thousand of those? Well, here goes…

For each pizza, you will need:

• ¼ Whole wheat pizza crust recipe
• ½ tsp olive oil
• Sprinkle Himalayan rock salt
• Generous sprinkle freshly cracked black pepper
• Generous sprinkle freshly grated nutmeg

• 50g mozzarella, grated
• 1-2 red pears, thinly sliced (a mandolin comes in handy)
• 20g blue cheese, crumbled
• 30g walnuts, chopped

• Handful arugula
• ½ tsp olive oil
• ⅛ tsp white wine vinegar
• Pinch lemon zest
• Pinch Himalayan rock salt
• Pinch freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 500F.
• Brush the dough with olive oil, sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Top with mozzarella cheese, red pear slices, half the blue cheese and half the walnuts then cook in the oven for about 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, mix the oil, vinegar, lemon zest, salt an pepper. Whisk until combined.
• As soon as your pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle the rest of the chopped walnuts and blue cheese crumbles. Mix the arugula with the dressing, toss to combine and mound in the center of your pizza.