Fruit Salads

Pear & Gorgonzola Salad

Pear and blue cheese is a classic pairing because the contrast is so extreme — soft sweet fruit against sharp, salty, almost aggressive cheese. Bitter leaves like radicchio and endive are what make it hold together; sweet lettuce would leave the salad lopsided. Candied walnuts do double duty as crunch and as another layer of sweetness, and a honey-sherry dressing keeps everything in conversation. Slice the pears at the last second, because they brown fast and nothing kills the look of this plate quicker.

Pear & Gorgonzola Salad
15 minPrep time
5 minCook time
20 minTotal time
4Servings
380Kcal / serving

Ingredients

  • 3 ripe but firm pears (Bosc or Comice)
  • 120g gorgonzola dolce, crumbled
  • 1 head radicchio, torn
  • 2 heads endive, leaves separated
  • 50g rocket
  • 80g walnuts
  • 1 tbsp honey, plus 1 tsp for the dressing
  • 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • Squeeze of lemon
  • Salt and black pepper

Instructions

  1. Candy the walnuts

    Toast the walnuts in a dry pan 3 minutes, stir in 1 tbsp honey and a pinch of salt, and cook 1–2 minutes until sticky. Tip onto baking paper to cool.

  2. Make the dressing

    Whisk the sherry vinegar, Dijon, remaining honey and olive oil with salt and pepper.

  3. Slice the pears

    Quarter, core and slice the pears thinly. Toss immediately with a squeeze of lemon to stop them browning.

  4. Build

    Toss the radicchio, endive and rocket with most of the dressing. Layer onto a platter with the pears, crumble the gorgonzola over, scatter the walnuts, and finish with the last of the dressing and black pepper.

Serve it with Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Wild Rice & Cranberry Salad. Our Apple Walnut Salad is the milder cousin, and Maple Dijon Vinaigrette works here too.

The EasySaladBowl secretUse gorgonzola dolce rather than piccante. The sweeter, creamier version melts into the leaves instead of sitting on them in sharp salty lumps.

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