Pecorino, Pear & Prosciutto di Parma
Salt, sweet and sharp on one base. The pear is not a garnish — it is the point.
Start cookingIn JD’s words
This is the one people do not expect, and then order again. Pecorino brings the salt and the sharpness, the pear brings sweetness and a bit of water, and the prosciutto brings the fat. Miss one of the three and it falls over.
Medium slices on the pear. Too thin and it disappears into the cheese, too thick and it steams and goes to mush.
The method
Cook it unhurried.
- 01
Oven, Hot
Get the oven as hot as it will go, and get it there early — an hour before you want to eat, with the stone or the steel already in it. Domestic ovens lie about being ready. If you are lighting the fire instead, you want the floor around 400°C and a flame licking the dome. This is the whole recipe, really: everything else is assembly.
- 02
Sauce, Raw
Crush the San Marzanos by hand, salt them, a dash of pepper, and the garlic only if you want it. Do not cook this sauce. It gets all the cooking it needs on the base, and a sauce that has been simmered first goes sweet and dull by the time it comes out.
- 03
Base, Stretch
Knuckles, not a rolling pin. A rolling pin drives the air out of the rim and you will never get it back. Work from the middle out, leave the outer two centimetres alone, and let gravity do the last of it — pick it up and let the weight of the dough pull it round. If it fights you, it is not rested. Walk away for ten minutes rather than force it.
- 04
Oil, First
Olive oil on the bare base before the sauce goes anywhere near it. It seals the dough so the sauce cannot soak in and make the middle sodden, and it is the difference between a crisp base and a wet one. Good Italian oil — you will taste it.
- 05
Pecorino, Ample
Grated pecorino, and more than feels sensible — it is doing the work of the mozzarella here as well as its own. Straight onto the sauce so it melts into it rather than sitting on top.
- 06
Pear, Arranged
Slice the pear to medium thickness and lay it out properly — arranged, not thrown on. Every slice should get some. This is the ingredient people remember, so give it the room.
- 07
Bake
Six to eight minutes at full heat. The pear should take a bit of colour at the edges and the pecorino should be bubbling. If the pear is still pale, the oven was not hot enough.
- 08
Prosciutto, After
Strips of Prosciutto di Parma over the top the second it leaves the oven — never before. The residual heat is exactly enough to soften the fat and release the smell. Bake it and you have spent good money on a crisp.
Cook this next