Yes, I know, the combination of nuts, blue cheese and fruit like apples or pears is a classic and you probably don't need instructions to think of something as simple as a salad.
Why would I still recommend this recipe to you? One reason is that we've recently started stocking the fantastic Erborinato do San Carlo, the original Gorgonzola, a wonderfully creamy blue cheese made from raw cow's milk from Piedmont. Its almost voluptuous sweetness makes it so special, and its spicy aroma captivated me even while I was shooting the recipe photos.
Our delicious Grenoble walnuts go exceptionally well with this fine blue cheese, and so two ingredients for this week's new recipe were already chosen.
Last but not least, it just so happens that the little fruit and vegetable shop on our street corner is selling the most wonderful pears – with the beautiful name Santa Maria – and I simply can't walk past them without buying at least one.
Usually I just bite into it without hesitation, but today I thought it was time for Santa Maria and San Carlo to get to know each other... I guess I was just in the mood for a culinary romance, seasoned with a pinch of piment d'Espelette, as red as love, and mixed with crunchy walnuts, which give it a good bite and ensure that the story doesn't become too cheesy.
Ingredients (for 4 people):
- 4 tbsp walnut oil
- 3 tbsp Martin Pouret vinegar
- Salt
- Espelette pepper
- a beautiful piece of Erborinato do San Carlo
- 2 chicory
- 1 Treviso radicchio
- 1 crisp, slightly sour pear
- Walnuts – about 2 per person
Preparation:
- Mix oil, vinegar, salt, and allspice to make a dressing.
- Wash the chicory, radicchio, and pear, quarter them lengthwise, and then cut them into long, narrow strips. The original recipe suggests using a mandoline slicer, but I didn't have one handy. A large, sharp knife will do just fine.
- Arrange everything on a plate or mix it together in a salad bowl.
- Pour the dressing over it.
- Cut the Erborinato into cubes or tear it into pieces with your fingers and add it to the salad.
- Finally, crack the nuts and sprinkle them over the salad.
- Voilà, c'est ça. Bon appetite!
The conclusion:
The crisp, sweet, and fresh pear complements and balances the bitterness of the chicory and radicchio without overpowering it. The walnut vinaigrette with the wonderfully winey and acidic Banyuls vinegar with light raspberry notes serves as the perfect base for the whole dish: both flavors emerge only subtly, graciously allowing the salad to take center stage and allow its aromas to shine.
The absolute highlight, however, is truly the Erborinato. Unlike, for example, the rather salty Roquefort, which would have naturally also been a good match here, the Erborinato brings its own wonderful sweetness, as already mentioned. And this, in turn, pairs perfectly with the pear.
The original recipe is by Orathay Souksisavanh and Vania Nikolcic and was published by Hädecke Verlag in 2011. I found it in Valentina's cookbook .
