Карамелизированные груши с голубым сыром

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.

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.

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.

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.