Foie gras, ginger, pear and fresh mozzarella pizza

In my village, confit du foie gras would be simply served sliced on bread. Ignoring tradition, use it as filling for ravioli, with fresh figs baked in filo parcels, in sliders with fig or quince paste, extravagantly mixed with quality pork mince and made into sausage rolls using butter puff pastry, or as I have here, atop a pizza.

I used buffalo mozzarella which, once sliced, I left to rest in a sieve while preparing the dough to expel excess liquid.

Ingredients

4 servings	Pizza dough, or enough for 2 average sized pizzas; this can be home-made or store bought (Main)
1 small	Onion, or 3 shallots, peeled and finely diced
2 tsp	Grated ginger, fresh, use up to 3 tsp
50 g	Butter
2	Pears, small and ripe, each cut into 8 wedges, pips removed (Main)
1 Tbsp	Sugar, heaped, I use caster sugar
2 Tbsp	Armagnac liqueur, or Cognac/brandy
200 g	Fresh mozzarella, sliced or torn into pieces (Main)
100 g	Duck liver confit, sliced or cut into small pieces (Main)
4	Dried figs, plump, finely sliced
1 sprinkle	Chives, to garnish, optional

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 200C. If using a pizza stone, place it into the oven to pre-heat.
2. Heat a dash of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and ginger together over a moderate heat until softened. Do not cook on a high heat as the onion burns before it has softened. Set aside.
3. Add the butter to the pan and when hot, add the pears cooking over moderate heat for a few minutes until the pears are golden and just cooked. Stir in the sugar and Armagnac or brandy to make a glaze to coat the pears with. Turn off. Do not discard any syrup in the pan as you will need it again.
4. Divide the pizza dough in half and roll each half out to a 20-23cm round — or a similar shape and size. Place the dough on greased trays on the hot pizza stone and brush each pizza base liberally with olive oil. Arrange the mozzarella cheese and pears on top.
5. Place into preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the dough and whether a preheated pizza stone was used. While the pizza is cooking, over a warm heat turn the slices of foie gras in remaining sugary glaze left from the pears. Do not overcook, the foie gras needs to be heated but not burnt.
6. Once the pizzas are cooked, scatter over the warm foiegras, figs and chives if using. I like to serve with a scattering of chopped fresh walnuts and maybe a drizzle of orange flavoured olive oil — it's delicious.