One of my favorite combinations, pears and blue cheese, makes for a pretty terrific salad, too, with pistachios and dried cherries and red onion. The sherry vinegar and zippy mustard vinaigrette isn’t too, too bad, either.
Paired with a baked potato and a beer and buttermilk marinated, then grilled, pork chop, glazed with honey bourbon barbecue sauce; this is just about the perfect dinner for a crisp (or, really, even a kinda warm) autumnal evening.
Oh, and did I mention it is a snap to toss (literally) together?
INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
•1 tbsp sherry vinegar – or cider vinegar
•1 tbsp mustard*
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•1/4 tsp Kosher salt
•1/4 cup olive oil
Salad:
•1 pear, cored and thinly sliced
•Lettuce, your choice, chopped – 3 or 4 cups
•1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
•1/4 cup pistachios
•1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese – I used a cow and sheep’s milk Gorgonzola
•2 tbsp dried cherries
*I used this spicy and sweet mustard, my new fave; and wicked simple to make: just combine equal amounts of Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, and honey until nicely blended. I also add a teaspoon or two of Aleppo pepper.
Whisk the sherry vinegar together with the mustard, Kosher salt, and black pepper; then add the olive oil and whisk until nicely blended.
Or, just do as I did and toss it all in a beaker and give it a good whizzz with your trusty immersion blender.
Worked a treat.
Note: I made this salad on the small side, since it was just the two of us, and the salad was dressed before serving, so I was concerned about leftovers being wilted. Enjoying it for lunch as I write this post, the lettuce (Iceberg – don’t judge) is not terribly crisp, but the pistachios and onion give the salad a nice crunch, and the flavor is still spot on.
Add the salad ingredients to a large bowl, then drizzle the dressing over and give it all a good toss.
Nice salad.