Pears with blue cheese and walnuts

Ann M. Evans
Author, Davis Farmers Market Cookbook, Revised Edition

Cookbook author Ann Evans gives the classic combination of pears, blue cheese and walnuts a twist by roasting the pears. "Roasting them slowly with butter intensifies their natural buttery flavor and helps to cook them to juicy spoon-softness," she said.

Ingredients

4 pears, halved and cored
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
4 to 6 oz. blue cheese
2 tbsp. chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush butter over pear halves, skin and cut side. Put pear halves, cut side down, in a baking dish just large enough to accommodate them. Using a pastry brush, coat pear halves with butter.

Bake pears until tender to a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn pears over and dab a spoonful of blue cheese in the center of each pear half. Sprinkle pears evenly with walnuts, return the dish to the oven and bake until cheese is warm, 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer pears to individual plates and serve warm.

Serves 8