Gorgonzola, Pear, & Kale Pizza with Optional Bacon
I’m realizing a lot of my one dish two ways (or meat optional) recipes call for optional bacon. The last recipe I posted had it; next week’s will, too.
I know I need to mix it up – and I will, I promise, especially after we get settled into our new place and I can get back to developing recipes – but for now, I give you … yep, you guessed it. Bacon.
I guess I find it to be one of the easiest meats for the mixed vegetarian/meat-eating diet, because so often it works like a condiment. Cook it up separately, then just dice and sprinkle on individual carnivorous portions at the end of the process.
In this case, the pizza stands alone without it. With its sweet pears, crispy kale, and salty-tangy punches of Gorgonzola, this pizza is no wimp. A little smoky bacon is just an added bonus.
This pizza reminds me of fall. Which is nice, because the weather reminds me of fall, too. Where in the heckin’ heck did this rain come from? Here in Seattle, we’ve enjoyed a glorious summer – and this morning we woke up to a downpour. Ahh. Here’s the Seattle I know.
This pizza is the perfect crossover pizza – it feels like summer, but the pear reminds us that autumn is near. But not too near! … I hope.
A little personal/blog update: we are knee-deep in boxes around here as we wrap things up at this home. Craziness! We’re going to be in between houses for much of September, and then (if all goes well) we move into our new place. Yippee! Without a familiar kitchen or computer set-up, I decided to develop and photograph a few weeks’ worth of recipes for these frenzied and sorta-homeless weeks ahead. I’ll be sharing those over the course of this month. My posting schedule will continue to be a little more erratic than usual – a couple of recipes per week as opposed to three or four – and my commenting/replies are nearly nonexistent right now. But please stick with me, friends! Exciting things to come this fall. I can’t wait.
Gorgonzola, Pear, & Kale Pizza with Optional Bacon
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound pizza crust dough (I used our favorite recipe, which works for the oven, too - or use your own, or store-bought, whichever works for you!)
- 2 ounces good Gorgonzola cheese (crumbled)
- 1 medium pear (quartered, seeded, and cut into thin slices)
- 1/2 sweet onion (such as Walla Walla, thinly sliced into rings)
- 1 cup shredded kale (loosely packed (about 6-7 medium kale leaves - I use Lacinato [or dinosaur] kale))
- 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
If adding bacon:
- 3-4 slices thick-cut bacon (cooked, drained and diced)
Instructions
- Shape pizza dough into one 14-inch round or two separate 7-inch(ish) rounds. Drizzle crust with a little olive oil. Evenly sprinkle crumbled Gorgonzola onto the dough, then lay on pears, then onion rings, then kale. Add bacon if using. Sprinkle the mozzarella. Drizzle with a little olive oil (one or two teaspoons will do it) and dust with a pinch of salt.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 10-14 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.