Tasty Twist to Foccacia

My mother and I spent the entire day last week cooking for a family dinner. From appetizers to dessert, it was an absolute success. Instead of making brushetta with my foccacia as I normally do, I decided to top the bread before baking and it presented a whole new perspective on a basic flatbread!

Follow the foccacia recipe that I posted back on Aug 19th. Let it do its rising and then follow the recipe below.

Ingredients:

Foccacia, prepared through rising
1-2 cups fontina cheese, shredded
2 Bosc Pears, ripe but firm
2 Shallots, chopped finely
1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1 cup gorgonzola or blue cheese
2 cups arugula, rinsed and dried
1 tablespoon + an additional 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter (I used soy butter)
salt/pepper
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon

Prepare foccacia recipe. While rising, slice pears thinly. In a saute pan, heat olive oil and butter. Add shallots and cook until transparent but NOT brown (this is called "sweating" and is referred to when cooking onions and other vegetables). Add pears and cook until pears are just starting to soften. DO NOT overcook or they will get mushy. In a separate pan, toast walnuts lightly. Again, do not overcook or they will turn bitter.
Once dough has risen twice, remove from oven and cover evenly with fontina cheese. Distribute pears evenly over cheese. I did this in a lined pattern, but you can choose to be chaotic while spreading them. Make sure shallots get evenly spread as well. Add walnuts next, followed by gorgonzola. You can use as much or as little of this cheese and can also use regular blue cheese if you prefer. Place bread back in oven and bake according to foccacia recipe, about 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until top is golden brown. While baking, blend the juice from 1/2 a lemon, olive oil and salt/pepper in a medium bowl. Add arugula to bowl and toss gently.
Remove bread from oven and let sit for about 5 minutes on a cooling rack. Top with arugula and use a pizza cutter to slice into squares. Enjoy!

Pear Gorgonzola and Walnut Foccacia