Pear Goat Cheese and Italian Sausage Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Fresh Basil

Ingredients

• 1 (16 oz) pizza dough, homemade or store bought
• 1 head garlic
• 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 1/2 barlett pears, sliced thin
• 6 oz low-moisture mozzarella cheese, diced into 1/2-inch cubes*
• 3 oz goat cheese, crumbled
• 5 oz Italian sausage (good quality), cooked and crumbled as cooking**
• Yellow corn meal, for dusting
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped into thin ribbons

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove loose papery outer layers from garlic (the cloves still remain intact), and cut about 1/4-inch from top to expose garlic cloves. Set garlic over a piece of aluminum foil (large enough to well wrap around garlic), drizzle 1 1/2 tsp olive oil evenly over top of garlic, then wrap with foil to enclose. Bake in preheated oven until nearly roasted through (not quite fully because it will continue to roast on pizza), about 28 - 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool, then remove cloves from skins. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees and place an pizza stone in center of oven.
• On a large sheet of parchment paper lightly dusted with corn meal (or flour), shape and stretch pizza dough to 12 1/2 inches. Brush top of dough evenly with 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil then sprinkle top evenly with pepper and salt. Layer pears, mozzarella, goat cheese, cooked italian sausage and garlic cloves over pizza. Using a pizza peel, transfer pizza on parchment to hot pizza stone in oven and bake 11 - 14 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and sprinkle with basil ribbons. Slice and serve warm.
• *I recommend using the kind that comes shaped like a cylinder (not fresh for this recipe though). Part skim or whole.
• **I slightly undercooked the sausage as it will continue to cook in the oven. Just make sure it's fully cooked through after baking.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy