Pear Pizza with Fried Sage

pear pizza with fried sage / loveandlemons.com pear pizza with fried sage / loveandlemons.com

Pumpkins and sweet potatoes seem to get all of the fall love. Rightfully so, but lately I’ve been having a mini obsession with pears. One day last week, pear pizza sounded like a good idea to me. No, I mean, literally, I just liked the way it sounded… with the two p’s.

I love a sweet component to savory foods, so I knew this would be good – I didn’t know this combo would be ridiculously good. While we were snapping photos, I let Jack have that missing slice. I knew we had a winner when he took a bite and his eyes lit up with excitement and surprise. Those eyes, they don’t lie. And they also don’t appease me.

pear pizza with fried sage / loveandlemons.com

The key here is that you want everything pretty thin – you don’t want dough that’s too doughy or huge chunks of onion or pear. You want those first few layers to nicely melt into each other.

And don’t skimp on the fried sage – it’s quick, easy and it’ll make your house smell like fall (and also strangely a little bit like McDonald’s breakfast sausage).

pear pizza

 
Author:
Serves: serves 2
Ingredients
  • pizza dough, rolled thin
  • olive oil with some minced garlic
  • 1 almost ripe pear, thinly sliced (about ⅛ inch)
  • ⅓ cup (or more), grated pecorino
  • 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced
  • part of a red onion, thinly sliced
  • ¼ cup good feta cheese
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • handful of arugula
  • sage leaves, fried
  • salt
  • optional: a few pinches of red pepper flakes
  • optional: drizzle of honey
Instructions
  1. Brush pizza dough with olive oil, garlic and a bit of salt.
  2. Evenly sprinkle with grated pecorino.
  3. Near the edge, place a layer of pears in a circle, then slightly overlap the pear layer with a circle of sliced mozzeralla, then another circle of pears, etc.
  4. Top with red onion slices, crumbled feta and pine nuts. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on a few pinches of salt.
  5. Cook until browned and bubbly (timing will depend on your dough - mine was very thin - I cooked my pizza at 450 for about 8-10 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile fry your sage. Heat a small skillet with about an inch of oil. Toss one sage leaf in to test if your oil is hot enough (if it bubbles as it hits the oil). Fry sage leaves for about 5 seconds each. Remove place on a paper towel to cool.
  7. Remove pizza from the oven and top with arugula and sage leaves. Optional - add a few pinches of red pepper flakes and a drizzle of honey.

I used store bought pizza dough here, but I’ve had success with this recipe in the past.

If I were to veganize this one, I would sub in daiya cheese and maybe drizzle some reduced balsamic on top at the end.

27 comments

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  1. Katie
    04.04.2018

    Made this last night on two naans (the lazy person’s personal pizza crust) and it was amazing! The only other substitution I made was walnuts instead of pine nuts as that’s what I had on hand – will definitely be making this again.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.04.2018

      Hi Katie – I’m so glad you loved it!

  2. Marny
    01.28.2017

    Made this for dinner last night and it was delicious! The flavor work perfectly together.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      01.28.2017

      oh I’m so happy to hear! Thank you for coming back to comment!

  3. Therese from thenorwegianhausfrau.com
    09.26.2014

    Love this!
    Also think it would be great with chèvre.
    Pear and chèvre works so well together.
    🙂

  4. autumn from autumnmakesanddoes.com
    10.16.2013

    I tend toward non-traditional pizza toppings anyway… ie: whatever is in my fridge! But, this combo sounds like a keeper.

  5. Tiffany from garlicandsalt-tiffany.blogspot.com
    10.15.2013

    Um, can I come and eat the left overs??? Oh wait, there are none… I mean, how could there be?!

  6. Hahaha! I can’t wait to see if it really does smell like McDonald’s! I am super excited for pomegranates on addition to pears and pumpkin and squash! This pizza is a perfect girls night fancy pizza!

  7. Katrine from rustickitchenaffairs.com
    10.15.2013

    What a great idea to add pears on a pizza – I’m gonna try this recipe!

  8. Kasey from turntablekitchen.com
    10.15.2013

    I love pears! What a unique and gorgeous flavor combination.

  9. Beth Young from mozzarelladiaries.blogspot.it
    10.15.2013

    Love a pizza bianca! Think they’re so underrated! Will definitely be trying this out on my Italian friends!

    • jeanine
      10.15.2013

      me too, hope they like it 🙂

  10. Absolutely lovely pizza. We have hundreds of pear orchards next to our farm and I am definitely making this soon! yum.

    • jeanine
      10.15.2013

      I am so so jealous 🙂

  11. Annie from gmail.com
    10.15.2013

    Oh that sounds and looks amazing. i am making this tonight! X

  12. yum! this combination looks amazing… i always love a new take on pizza. this is definitely on the to-make-this-autumn list!! (maybe with some gorgonzola on there, too!)

    • jeanine
      10.15.2013

      I bet gorgonzola would be good! (I happen to not like it so my go-to is always feta – but I realize I am the minority on that one) 🙂

  13. Eileen from hampiesandwiches.blogspot.com
    10.14.2013

    Pear pizza sounds amazing! The color contrast with the sage & arugula is just beautiful too. 🙂

  14. I too, like a little sweet with my savory (which is why I add balsamic vinegar to almost everything).

    Also, thanks for always adding a vegan option. I really appreciate you thinking of us vegans!

    • jeanine
      10.15.2013

      ha, me too, I love balsamic way too much!

      Thanks, I try… I go in and out of cheese phases myself, but I like to always offer options 🙂

  15. Kathryn from londonbakes.com
    10.14.2013

    This sounds such a light & bright combination of flavours, love the hint of sage in there too.

  16. Pears are great sub for apple in my opinion. I see a lot of apple recipe right now and I always wonder if they be goo or better with pear. Rightfully so you pay attention to less loved fruits and veggies, I hope more people follow your lead.

    Love the flavours. I normally do pear with walnuts, sherry and blue cheese but I guess I going to have change my pizza up this weekend

    • jeanine
      10.15.2013

      thanks! I bet blue cheese would be good here in place of the feta… and I was going to do walnuts I just happened to be out 🙂

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.