Who doesn’t love pizza for dinner? I think there aren’t many people that don’t enjoy a yummy, cheesy, comforting pizza. I enjoy making pizza at home for a couple reasons. One reason being that I can control the amount of fat and sodium that goes into my pie and the second reason … because it’s fun!

The other night I made a prosciutto, crispy sage and pear pizza. Instead of mozzarella cheese, I chose fontina. I also used marinara sauce instead of traditional pizza sauce.

I sautéd garlic in olive oil for about 30 seconds until the garlic was fragrant.

I removed the garlic from the pan immediately, set it aside and added minced sage into the same pan, sautéing it for a little over a minute and turned off the heat. The sage crisped up nicely and made a nice touch for this pizza.

I let me pizza dough rise for 20 minutes on a lightly floured bread board. (I use pizza dough that I buy at Trader Joe’s). I did nothing more to the dough than sprinkle sea salt on it before baking. Baking my crust for for 8-10 minutes before adding any toppings allows my pizza crust to get a little crispier. After the 8-10 minutes of pre-baking my crust, I remove it from the oven and let it sit for a minute before building my pizza.

I started with jarred marinara sauce. Next, I added fontina cheese that I had shredded. On top of that, I laid prosciutto that I had cut into strips. (I used four pieces of prosciutto that I had stacked and cut into pieces.) After the prosciutto, I added my garlic and crispy sage to the pizza. Slices of pear were placed on top of the pizza before sprinkling diced red onion. For a finishing touch, I added a sprinkling of crushed red pepper.

I baked my pizza for 13 minutes. The crust was thin and crispy … just the way I like it. Definitely give this pizza recipe a try! It was fantastic.

Ingredients

• fresh pizza dough

• marinara sauce (as much or as little as you like … I used 1 cup

• 4 ounces prosciutto, cut into strips

• 3 cloves minced garlic

• 2 tablespoons chopped sage

• 1/2 red onion, diced

• 1/2 pear, sliced

• 1-1/2 cups fontina cheese, shredded

• 1/8 cup flour

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• sea salt (for sprinkling crust)

• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

1. Set dough out to rise on a floured bread board.
2. Form dough on pizza pan and sprinkle with sea salt.
3. Bake dough in a preheated 425 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
4. Heat olive oil in small sauté pan.
5. Sauté garlic for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Remove from pan and set aside.
6. In same pan, sauté sage for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat and let sage sit in pan. It will become crispy.
7. Spread marinara sauce on pre-baked crust.
8. Sprinkle cheese on pizza.
9. Add prosciutto, garlic, sage, sliced pear and red onion to pizza.
10. Sprinkle pizza with crushed red pepper flakes.
11. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cheese is melted.
12. Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris