Pears and prosciutto pair up in a salad and on a pizza

Pear perks. Yep, I’m lucky enough to have a sister and brother-in-law who giveth pears each year. I previously shared that my sister’s husband’s family has a farm in southern Oregon where my brother-in-law’s dad planted pear trees in the early ‘90s. We look forward every year to getting our hands on pears from the Vaughn family farm. Last month my sister shipped box #1 to my husband for his birthday. Unfortunately, UPS decided to let them sit around in the heat before delivering (should have taken one day) and we received a box of “sauce” rather than pears on the verge of ripening. I managed to salvage parts of the pears and cooked them up into pear sauce for eating with pork chops and baking. Then, surprise! We received box #2 full of Bartlett, Starkrimson and Comice pears. However … we were out of town when they arrived. Thankfully, my lovely neighbor came over and carefully unpacked and separated them. She’s now my official pear handler. We gobbled up the Bartletts right away as they were the ripest. The Starkrimson pears were destined for greatness in a salad. The Comice still aren’t super ripe, but I decided they’d be perfect for a pear pizza.

Autumn Starkrimson Pear and Feta Salad

The beautiful red color of the Starkrimson pears make them perfect for a modified version of the Autumn Harvest Honeycrisp Apple and Feta Salad from Tieghan Gerard. For salads, I rarely measure out the ingredients, but instead typically guestimate the amounts depending on how many people I’m serving. In this case, I was making dinner for two, so I roughly halved the recipe, but made the full amount of the spicy nut mixture and the crispy prosciutto, knowing I’d have leftovers of each of these items.

Step 1: Prep the nut & seed mixture and crisp up the prosciutto.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup raw pecans

• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

• 2 tablespoons maple syrup 

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• flaky sea salt

• 3 ounces of thinly sliced prosciutto

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix the nuts and seeds with seasonings and maple syrup. The recipe called for three tablespoons of syrup but that felt excessive. I used two tablespoons and that was still more than enough. I cautiously used ¼ tsp of cayenne on the nuts and I’m here to tell you that they had PLENTY of spice. I think ½ tsp would have been waaaay too much. Crispy prosciutto is one of my and my husband’s favorite new things. I combined the nuts with the syrup and dumped onto the center of a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then I tore the prosciutto and arranged it around the outside edges of the pan. Some of the spicy syrup seeped onto the edges of the prosciutto. Yum. Love me some spicy-sweet. Bake it for about 12-13 minutes, watching carefully. When slightly cooled, break up the nuts mixture. Set aside.

Step 2: Make the vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon apple butter (optional) - skipped

• 2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup

• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

• kosher salt and black pepper

Add all ingredients to a small jar and shake vigorously. The vinaigrette (I can never spell that word) was lip-smackin’ good. I did omit the apple butter and was delighted to use fresh thyme and sage from my yard in the dressing. Okay so my avocado was pretty firm, but that works better in a salad anyhow. There aren’t many things worse than a mushy avocado smooshing up your greens.

Step 3: Put the salad together

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups arugula 

• 1 -2 (depending on size and preference) thinly sliced Starkrimson pears

• 1/2 avocado, thinly sliced

• Handful of dried cranberries 

• Approx. 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

In addition to substituting pears for the apples, I used dried cranberries for pomegranate arils. Just easier really. The beauty of the salad is in the arrangement. Place the arugula in a large shallow bowl and have fun arranging the ingredients to show off the colors and textures. Leave the skins on the pears and tuck them in so the red part shows. Tuck the avocado slices in and sprinkle cranberries and feta cheese over the green of the arugula and avocado. Add the slightly cooled nut mixture and prosciutto. Don’t toss before serving. Bring to table, drizzle the vinaigrette over and then toss.

Spicy Comice Pear and Prosciutto Flatbread Pizzas

It just so happens that October is National Pizza Month. (Did you know? Ha. Who can keep track?) Not so coincidentally, on Oct. 1 the Pear Bureau Northwest announced its pear pizza takeover campaign. Reason enough for me to make a pear pizza for college game day this past weekend. My challenge was to use whatever ingredients I had at home and I must say that my creation turned out to be rather tasty!

Ingredients (for one individual size pizza)

• 1 naan bread (I used Stonefire Original Naan – comes in a 2-pack)

• 2 Tablespoons jalapeno jelly

• Approx. 2/3 cup feta cheese

• Prosciutto (about ½ of a 3-oz package) See note.

• 1 Comice Pear, on the firm side

• Cilantro

• Fresh mint

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees 

2. Place the naan bread directly on rack for 3 minutes. Turn naan over and bake for 2 more minutes on rack. 

3. Take naan out and spread with a thin layer of jalapeno jelly. This of course depends on how spicy you want it. I love a spicy-sweet combo but not so much spice that you can’t taste anything else. 

4. Sprinkle about a 1/3 cup feta cheese over the jelly.

5. Thinly slice (don’t peel) one small-medium-sized Comice pear. You can certainly use a different variety if you like.  Fan the pear slices out over the pizza. You’ll probably have extra. Just pop them in your mouth right now.

6. Sprinkle on the torn prosciutto. I used the rest of prosciutto from my salad a couple days before. I gave it a rough chop and sprinkled over the pears before placing in oven. A few minutes crisped it back up nicely. If you didn’t already bake your prosciutto, then depending on how crisp you like it, you may want to pop it in the oven for 4-5 minutes on a baking sheet before putting on the pizza for final crisping.

7. Bake the naan pizza for about 4 minutes directly on rack. It’s a good idea to place a baking sheet on the oven rack below to catch any drippings. Check the bottom for desired doneness. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chopped cilantro and mint. 

8. Cut and enjoy the sweetness of the pear intermingled with the crisp salty prosciutto and spicy jalapeno with lingering tastes of mint and cilantro.

9. Finish watching your football team give the game away. Yaa, that happened.

Drown your sorrows in pears. Where’s that pear sauce when I need it?

Comice pears waiting to be eaten.