Pear Salad with Blue Cheese

This lovely autumnal salad, with sweet juicy pears, crunchy toasted walnuts and crumbles of creamy, salty blue cheese drizzled with a red wine vinaigrette, offers a wonderful marriage of contrasting flavors and texture.

Recipe Ingredients:

Red Wine Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon (1 small) shallot, minced
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad:
1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 ounces baby greens, washed and dried
2 Asian or Bosc pears
1 cup ( 6 ounces) Wisconsin Blue (or Gorgonzola) cheese, crumbled
Raspberries, for garnish (optional)

Cooking Directions:

1. Chill four serving plates.
2. For Vinaigrette: In a small jar, combine the vinegar, shallot, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper. Add the olive oil, and shake to incorporate. Shake again before serving.
3. For Salad: In a hot sauté pan, toss the olive oil and walnuts quickly to toast (about one minute). Remove from pan and cool on paper towel.
4. Divide the lettuce equally onto the four chilled plates. Cut the pears into quarters and core. Thinly slice the pears and evenly distribute over the lettuce (about 1/2 pear per portion). Top the lettuce evenly with the cheese and the walnuts.
5. Garnish each salad with raspberries, if desired. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the entire salad.

Makes 4 servings.

Recipe and photograph courtesy of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc.