Pear Crisp

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. FOR THE TOPPING: Process nuts, flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about 9 pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about 5 pulses, scraping down bowl halfway through. Set aside.
3. FOR THE FILLING: Whisk sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt together in large bowl. Gently toss pears with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch square baking dish.
4. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Transfer baking dish to prepared baking sheet. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking dish to wire rack and let cool until warm, about 15 minutes; serve.

PEAR CRISP WITH OAT TOPPING
Reduce nuts to 1⁄2 cup and increase butter to 6 tablespoons. After incorporating butter into flour mixture in step 2, add 1⁄2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats to food processor and process until evenly incorporated, about 3 pulses.

TRIPLE-GINGER PEAR CRISP
Use almonds for nuts and replace cinnamon and nutmeg with 3⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger. Process 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped crystallized ginger with nuts and flour in step 2. Reduce lemon juice to 1 teaspoon and add 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger to sugar-cornstarch mixture in step 3.

CORING PEARS FOR PEAR CRISP
For this recipe, the pears are best peeled and halved, from stem to blossom end, and then cored and cut into pieces.
1. Use melon baller to cut around central core of halved, peeled pear with circular motion; remove core.
2. Draw melon baller from central core to top of pear, removing interior stem. Remove blossom end. Quarter each half lengthwise and then cut each piece in half crosswise for eight pieces.