Caramelized Pears with Blue Cheese

Name: Caramelized Pears with Blue Cheese
Yield: 3
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Pear: 3 pcs; Blue cheese: 50 - 60 g; Extra Virgin olive oil: 1-2 tbsp; Brown sugar: 3 tbsp; Thyme: 2-3 sprigs; Walnut: handful of

Features:

Cuisine:

Italian

30
Serves 3
Easy

Ingredients

3 pcs Pear
medium-sized, ripe but hard
50 - 60 g Blue cheese
Gorgonzola, Bavaria Blue, etc
1-2 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil
3 tbsp Brown sugar
2-3 sprigs Thyme
handful of Walnut
optionally

Directions

This snack is quick and elegant. It looks lovely when served and the flavor combination is perfect. Caramelized pears give sweetness and fruit freshness, accented with salty and heady blue cheese to advantage. The herb that perfectly works here is thyme.

Pears can also be caramelized on the stove, but it’s much less troublesome for me to use the oven – pears literally cook themselves.

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Steps

1 Done	INGREDIENTS Choose ripe but hard pears. Use any blue cheese to your taste. Gorgonzola is traditionally used, but you can use cheeses with a more intense taste.
2 Done 15 мин	BAKING PEARS Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a baking dish with foil, smoothing it into the corners and edges so that juices won’t run out during baking. Slice the pears lengthwise into halves, remove the core and seeds. Arrange them, cut side up, in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and bake on the middle rack for about 15 min. You want the pears be slightly underbaked. The time of baking will depend on pears’ ripeness and cultivar.
3 Done 8-10 мин	CARAMELIZATION Take the pears out of the oven. Generously sprinkle then with brown sugar. Return them to the oven - this time on the upper rack and bake for 8-10 min until sugar caramelizes. As soon as the pears’ cut sides are covered with slightly browned caramel, take them out and let chill for a while.
4 Done	FINAL NOTES & SERVING While the pears are still warm, place blue cheese on top of each cut side, sprinkle with thyme and drizzle with olive oil again. You can also sprinkle the pears with toasted chopped walnuts or almond flakes. Serve hot.