Olive oil × Cheese
Crispy Rice Crust Pizza with Pear and Blue Cheese
Leftover rice pressed into a pan and fried in olive oil until crisp becomes the pizza base. Topped with sliced pear and blue cheese, then finished with nuts, honey, rosemary and Arbequina olive oil. Sweet and salty — for apéritif time or a light meal.
- Serves
- Serves 2–4 (one 20 cm pizza)
- Time
- About 20 minutes
Ingredients
- Cooked rice (Japanese short-grain), warm200 g
- Salta pinch
- Extra virgin olive oil2 tbsp
- Pear1/2–1
- Blue cheese50 g
To finish
- Roasted almonds or walnuts20 g
- Honeyas needed
- Rosemary (or thyme)a little
- Black peppera pinch
- Extra virgin olive oil (Arbequina)as needed
Method
- Mix the salt into the rice. Cut the pear lengthwise, skin on, remove the core and slice thinly. Roughly chop the nuts.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the rice and spread it into a thin, flat round about 20 cm across. Press it down with a spatula and cook for 5–6 minutes, until the bottom is golden and crisp.
- Arrange the pear on top and scatter over the blue cheese, broken into pieces.
- Cover, turn the heat to low and cook for 2–3 minutes, until the blue cheese melts.
- Turn off the heat, scatter over the nuts and drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with rosemary and black pepper and finish with a drizzle of olive oil.
Tips
- In Japan, the crisp, golden crust of rice at the bottom of the pot is called okoge. Here the whole base is made into okoge.
- Warm rice is stickier and holds together better. If using cold rice, warm it in the microwave first.
- For a crisp base, press it down firmly and do not move it while it cooks. Lift an edge with the spatula to check the colour.
- The saltiness of the blue cheese goes well with the sweet pear and honey. If you do not like blue cheese, try Gorgonzola dolce or Camembert.
- Do not give honey to babies under 1 year old.
A way to use up leftover rice, which turns into a crisp, toasty crust. The Arbequina olive oil from El Labrador used to finish it has a fruity, mellow aroma that ties together the sweetness of the pear and the saltiness of the blue cheese.
Chie Ando develops recipes for Medifar, the Japanese importer of El Labrador olive oil. This recipe also appears on Medifar's Instagram.
