Grilled Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

The inspiration for this grilled pizza was from Robust Wine Bar, one of my favorite places in St. Louis to go on pleasant evenings to sit out on the sidewalk, sample their sumptuous small plates and sip their wonderful wine list. Their pear and prosciutto pizza is to die for and while this is not the perfect substitute, it is as close as you can get right now as their menu changes often and that item is no longer served at Robust. Should you want to recreate that masterpiece, this is as close as it gets. If anyone knows any ingredients I’m missing in my version of this grilled pear and prosciutto pizza, please let me know so I can add them.

If you are looking for other grilled pizzas, we have pulled pork pizza, jerk chicken pizza and for those afraid to put that dough right on the grill grates, aluminum foil is your friend. 

Grilled Pear and Prosciutto Pizza Ingredients:

• 1 very ripe bartlett pear, sliced into thin wedges
• 1 16 ounce fresh pizza dough ball
• 1 tbsp corn meal
• 3 tbsp olive, divided into thirds
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 4 oz sliced prosciutto
• 1 oz asiago cheese, microplaned over the pizza
• 4 oz baby arugula

Slice the ripe bartlett pear into thin wedges:

Set up the grill for direct grilling. In this case, the third Grillin’ Fool’s, Tom’s two burner gas grill, set to medium high (about 400F). A charcoal grill would work too. Grill the pears to get some nice grill marks, only a minute or two at those temps:

Once the pears are grilled, set them aside and get to work on the crust. Spread out a tablespoon of the corn meal on the cutting board and then put the pizza dough ball on the corn meal, coating the outside and then roll the ball out into a crust:

You can use one of these fancy little rollers to make a perfectly round pizza, but it’s not necessary:

Once the crust goes on the grill, the shape is likely to change, so don’t sweat if it’s not perfectly round. 

Pro Tip ~ The dough ball is easier to work with if it is at room temperature. But if it gets too warm after it is rolled out, it will become unmanageable as it will become way too elastic and stretchy.

Brush one tbsp of oil over crust:

How to Grill Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

Now over to the grill. Pick up the crust by the edge farthest from you and place it oil side down on the medium high grill (about 400-450F)

See what I mean about the shape won’t matter once it’s on the grill:

Now brush this side with a tbsp of oil:

Now that the crust is on the grill, don’t go far. It doesn’t take long for the crust to start to bubble. Don’t sweat the bubbles unless one is so big that the crust will cook unevenly:

Keep checking the bottom until it is browned through. In this case, it’s not done yet and I see that the crust closest to the front is not cooking as much as over the middle, so I slid it toward the back to the front of the crust would cook too:

Once the grilled pizza crust is golden brown on the bottom, remove from the grill and cover with the last tbsp of oil:

Then apply the 2 tsp of garlic and spread evenly:

Now put chunks of goat cheese all over the grilled pizza:

Note – In hindsight, I wouldn’t have applied the cheese this way. I would’ve let it come to room temp, put it in a bowl with the garlic and mixed it together and then spread it on like a paste. See, the goat cheese doesn’t melt like a mozzarella or Provel. That’s why I did the smoked salmon pizza like this:

Back to the Grilled Pear and Prosciutto Pizza. Add the slices of prosciutto and pear. You may not use all the pear or prosciutto, but use as much as you like:

Add a snowfall of asiago via a microplane:

Now we’re ready to go back on the grill with our grilled pear and prosciutto pizza:

***Editor’s Note ~ While that looks like a lot of Asiago cheese, the microplane scraps the little snow flakes of cheese so thin that it looks like a lot more is there. I probably should’ve doubled the amount of cheese on the grilled pizza***

It takes only about 4-5 minutes, depending on the heat of the grill to get the crust golden brown underneath. Keep checking the underside of the grilled pizza to make sure it doesn’t burn. When it looks like this, pull from the grill:

You can slide it off onto a cutting board or you can use a pizza peel:

Then hit the top of the pizza with the baby arugula and slice:

And plate:

Grilled Pizza Recap

The sweet of the pear, the salt of the prosciutto and the spice of the arugula come together into a pleasantly, pleasing pizza. Add in the crispiness of the crust and the crunch of the fresh greens, it is an extraordinary edible experience, all prepared on the grill, because that’s what we do.

If you have any questions about the grilled pear and prosciutto pizza recipe above or have your own pizza recipes, feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

If you need any other grilled pizza inspiration just click this link. 

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Print Recipe

Grilled Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

A wonderfully elegant grilled pizza that pairs perfectly with a nice chardonnay

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Pizza

Cuisine: BBQ

Servings: 4 -6

Ingredients

• 16 oz fresh pizza dough ball
• 1 very ripe bartlett pear sliced into thin wedges
• 1 tbsp corn meal
• 3 tbsp olive oil divided into 3
• 2 tsp garlic minced
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 4 oz sliced prosciutto
• 1 oz Asiago cheese microplaned over the pizza
• 4 oz baby arugula

Instructions

• Remove the dough ball from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature
• Set up the grill for high heat grilling (400-500 degrees)
• Place the pear slices on the grill to get get a nice charring on both sides
• Remove from the Char-Broil Tru Infrared and set aside
• Spread out the corn meal on a cutting board
• Roll the dough out on the corn meal covered board
• Brush the top with olive oil
• Place the pizza crust on the grill, oil side down
• Oil the top of the pizza dough
• When the crust bubbles over the entire surface, check the bottom for browning
• If it is not browning evenly, rotate the crust that is not done as much over the spot where it is browning the most
• When browned evenly, remove from the grill, flip over and place on a clean cutting board browned side up
• Coat the browned side with olive oil
• Spread the minced garlic over the crust evenly
• Place chunks of the chèvre goat cheese over the pizza crust
• Add the prosciutto, grilled pear and asiago cheese
• Put the grilled pizza back onto the grill
• The time it took for the crust to brown the first time, is how long it should take the second time, so keep a close eye
• When the bottom is browned the cheese will be melted and the rest of the toppings warmed
• Remove from the grill and apply the baby arugula
• Slice and serve

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: August 24, 2012