Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with Walnuts - Easy Italian Recipe

Name: Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with Walnuts - Easy Italian Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Green salad 1 bunch; Ripe pear 1; Blue cheese 100 g; Olive oil 3-4 tbsp; Walnuts (shelled) 1 tbsp; Salt, black pepper, balsamic vinegar to taste

A salad with pear and blue cheese is hard to put into any category of salads defined by ingredients. Usually a salad is a dish made from a mix of different foods: vegetables, mushrooms, fruit. Salads are almost always salted, which explains the name: salad comes from the Italian salato, salata, meaning “salted.” Sweet or dessert salads, though, are not salted. Salads are almost always dressed. For familiar salads the dressing is usually mayonnaise or plain vegetable oil.

It just so happens that in the vast majority of cases people call anything a salad as long as it is finely chopped and dressed with mayonnaise. Besides, few people eat a salad at lunch separately from the main course. Perhaps the exception is the “Olivier” salad, which can serve as an appetizer, a main course or even a dessert. To me Olivier is a real treat, although I also love the salad with chicken liver

Green leaf lettuce, or head lettuce, is the best-known and most widely used green vegetable for fresh salads. Few people know that most salad greens are relatives of ordinary weeds. But a dish of salad leaves is a light salad, always tasty and full of vitamins. A serving of light, tasty green salad for breakfast or before lunch is very good for you.

Green salad goes wonderfully with almost anything: vegetables, fruit, herbs. One of my favorite dishes based on green salad is shrimp with lettuce, tomatoes and olives.

In Italy there are very popular salads with green leaves, and not only with lettuce but with other popular kinds of salad leaves: endive, arugula, frisée, iceberg, cress and so on. Usually several kinds of green leaves go in together. Salads are often made from quite exotic ingredients, with various Italian cheeses added, most often soft, creamy ones. And they are almost always dressed with the best olive oil.

Light Italian salads are dishes worth making often, or better yet all the time. As a rule, these salads are not too high in calories, contain lots of fresh vegetables and are perfect for everyday eating.

Take this pear salad recipe as a base and vary it with different ingredients to your taste. The salad is very tasty and will appeal even to mayonnaise lovers.

More with nuts

Beets with Prunes and WalnutsBeet salad with prunes and walnuts: baked beets, toasted walnuts and prunes dressed with homemade mayonnaise. An easy make-ahead holiday salad.

AdjikaReal Caucasian adjika: hot red chili peppers, garlic, coriander, khmeli-suneli and rock salt ground into a fiery paste. No tomatoes, step-by-step with photos.

Chicken Satsivi: Spiced Wings in Bazhe Walnut SauceChicken satsivi: wings braised with onion, then cooled in bazhe, a Georgian walnut sauce with garlic, cilantro and spices. Served cold with lavash.

Eggplant Pkhali — Baked Eggplant with Herbs, Walnuts and SpicesEggplant pkhali: baked eggplant blended with walnuts, garlic, cilantro and khmeli-suneli. A quick Georgian appetizer, step-by-step recipe with photos.

Megrelian Kharcho: Traditional Veal Rib and Rice SoupMegrelian kharcho: a Georgian soup of veal ribs or brisket with rice, tkemali, lots of herbs and a walnut and garlic dressing. Step-by-step recipe with photos.

Ingredients

2 servings

Green salad 1 bunch
Ripe pear 1
Blue cheese 100 g
Olive oil 3-4 tbsp
Walnuts (shelled) 1 tbsp
Salt, black pepper, balsamic vinegar to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Choose the green salad leaves to your taste. It can be lettuce, Chinese cabbage, frisée, iceberg and so on. A pear salad works with almost any salad leaves. You can buy washed and packed ready-to-use leaves, which are often sold in stores. One thing: don't take leaves that are bitter.
Arugula, mustard greens and endive almost always have a slightly bitter taste. I, for one, don't much like that taste in a dish, although I happily eat arugula on its own, even with meat.
Wash the leaves thoroughly and sort through them. It's worth putting the leaves in cold water beforehand, so they become firm and crisp. Before making the salad, dry the leaves well. It's hardly possible to get salad leaves completely dry without a special spinner, but it's worth trying.
Tear the lettuce leaves into small pieces by hand. Don't cut them with a knife: cutting releases a lot of juice, and the salad will turn into soup. Put the torn leaves in a salad bowl and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Gently toss the leaves.
The pear for the salad should be ripe but not soft. Preferably not cloyingly sweet and not too juicy. So-called “winter” pear varieties are excellent. As a child I loved pears. At my grandmother's in the village they often said not “grusha” but “dulya.” For quite a long time the word “grusha” was little used, and “dulya,” from the Polish “dula,” was more common.
Peel and core the pear. Cut the flesh into thin slices and put them in the salad bowl with the prepared green salad.
Choose the blue cheese to your taste. It's important that the cheese is not too hard, so that the pear salad melts in your mouth. Roquefort, young Gorgonzola, Danablu and Dor Blu all work well. The original Italian salad uses Gorgonzola, either Gorgonzola Dolce or Cremificato, one of the best-known mildly sharp cheeses made in Lombardy.
Cut the blue cheese into cubes with a knife and add it to the salad.
Toast the shelled walnuts briefly in a hot dry frying pan, but never let them burn. Crush the nuts a little; it works well if you simply rub them between your fingers. Sprinkle the nuts over the pear salad and add a little freshly ground black pepper. Optional.
In a small bowl or cup, mix the olive oil with 1-2 drops of balsamic vinegar. Whisk the oil and vinegar with a fork and pour the dressing over the pear salad. Toss the salad lightly, not too vigorously.
Pear and blue cheese salad is a wonderful light appetizer that goes well with fresh white bread or Italian bruschetta.