I actually hate baked fruit (slimy and vaguely crunchy, ugh), but this is my new favorite dessert as long as we still have pears from our trees to use up. I do cut the pears into tiny tiny pieces (smaller than peas), which eliminates the crunchy slime factor.
I leave out the nuts and increase the pears a little (by 1/4 C or so). I would be careful with fiddling with the amount of sugar. It did seem a little sweet to me the first time, but when I cut it back to 1/2 C, it was a bit tart and the texture of the crust was more spongy than delicate sugar-crisp. So I now use the original full amount of sugar.
-------------------- jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC