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–+ servings

Pear And Blue Cheese Salad

Main Course, Salads
Ripe pear slices and crumbled Roquefort on a bed of mixed bitter leaves, mâche, frisée, and radicchio, scattered with toasted walnuts and dressed with a proper walnut oil vinaigrette. Sweet against sharp, soft against crunchy. This classic French salad takes 15 minutes and is one of those combinations that just works every single time.
Pear And Blue Cheese Salad recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 As starter

Ingredients 

For the salad
  • 2 pears ripe but firm
  • 120 gr Roquefort
  • 80 gr walnuts
  • 60 gr lamb's lettuce
  • 40 gr curly endive
  • 40 gr radicchio
  • 1 squeeze lemon juice to stop the pear browning
For the walnut vinaigrette

Equipment

Instructions

  1. 1. Toast the walnuts
    Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Toast for 3–4 minutes, shaking the pan regularly, until they're golden and smell nutty. Watch them closely, they go from toasted to burnt faster than you'd think. Tip onto a plate and leave to cool, then roughly break them up with your hands.
  2. 2. Make the vinaigrette
    Whisk together the Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar in a small bowl. Add the walnut oil and olive oil in a slow stream, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth, emulsified dressing. Season well with salt and pepper. Taste it, it should be sharp and nutty, with a bit of backbone from the mustard.
  3. 3. Prepare the pear
    Core the pears and slice them thinly, around 5mm. You don't need to peel them. Toss the slices very briefly in a little lemon juice to stop them going brown. Don't drown them in it; you just want a light coating.
  4. 4. Assemble
    Dress the leaves lightly with about two thirds of the vinaigrette and toss gently. Divide between four plates or arrange in a large bowl. Lay the pear slices over the top, scatter over the Roquefort in rough chunks, and finish with the toasted walnuts. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over everything just before serving.
  5. 5. Serve immediately
    This salad doesn't sit well once dressed, so bring it to the table straight away. The leaves will wilt and the pear will start to soften if you leave it. Five minutes is fine. Thirty minutes is not.

Notes

  • Roquefort is the traditional choice, and there's a good reason for that, the saltiness and creaminess is hard to match. But Fourme d'Ambert works well if you want something slightly milder, or Bleu d'Auvergne if you want to stay in the AOP French blue cheese world without quite the same intensity.
  • Walnut oil is non-negotiable here, really. It's what makes the dressing taste specifically French rather than generically nice. It goes rancid quickly once opened, so keep it in the fridge.
  • The leaves: mâche, frisée, and radicchio are the classic combination, and most supermarkets sell mixed bags that include all three. A bag labelled 'bistro salad' or 'bitter leaves' will do the job perfectly well.
  • Add some vegetarian lardons if youfancy, pan-fried until crispy and scattered over the top while still warm. A very common French variation, and a good one