Cherry smoked bacon, red pear, four pepper goat cheese pizza!

Oh my!  I was on www.katheats.com earlier today and she had Brixx Pizza (never heard of it,  I think its a pizza chain in the North Carolina area) made with pear and Gorgonzola cheese.  What? !  I had never even thought of such a combination!  I know I like my apple/cheddar cheese combo, so that worked, and although I am a fan of blue cheese, a little goes a long way!  So then I got to thinking about making a pear pizza with my favorite cheese – goat cheese!

First I started out by making my no knead pizza dough.  I hope to have a link to that recipe done over the weekend! 

While that was working in the food processor, I cooked 3 pieces of bacon.

This was in the clearance bin at my store – I got about 8 slices of bacon for $1.84 – nice!

Then I knew I didn’t want the traditional pizza sauce, so I decided to keep it white.  I used 1/4 cup of part skim ricotta cheese mixed with Italian seasonings and minced garlic.

While at the store I couldn’t decide what kind of pear to get until I saw this red one.  Our local grocery store is doing a total makeover and trying to make it look like Whole Foods.  I have never even seen a red pear before!

While I was putting my pizza together, I made Tony an appetizer (he had steak later!).  I needed to cook these up because I bought them a week ago – escargot!  ICK!  At the Fresh Market they sell these already in the shell with the herb butter and I just bake them at 350 for 10 – 15 minutes until the butter is melted.  They sell them for .60 a piece and I clean out the shells and reuse them with canned snails.

I sliced my pear REALLY thin – I used about half of the pear.

I always precook my crust by itself for 7 - 9 minutes to ensure I have a cracker thin crispy crust!

Then I added 1 1/2 slices of cooked bacon:

I ended up sprinkling a handful of mozzarella cheese to fill in the gaps of the goat cheese.  Here’s how it looks out of the oven:

And here’s how it looks cut up on my plate:

I ate EVERYTHING!

The combination of flavors was AMAZING!  First of all, the pears get slightly soft in the baking process.  But the combination of the tangy ricotta, the sourness of the goat cheese, saltiness of the bacon and sweetness of the pears was incredible.  I almost always put crushed red pepper and my pizza, but changed my mind last minute.  I think next time I’d add it just to give it a little kick.  Tony and Hannah wouldn’t even try it.  That’s okay – more for me!

Off to relax with Tony!  Hope everyone has a good Friday night!  See you tomorrow!