Gorgonzola Stuffed Pears

I get a lot of pears in the mail. I think I might have mentioned that before. I don’t eat a lot of pears unless they do land on my doorstep. I’m more of an apple person, actually. But since I get them, I have to find neat things to do with them, and this has led to some absolutely delicious and easy discoveries. Because, the simple fact is…pears are pretty great. And, they play nice with others. In fact, they play in groups better than just about any other fruit. I’ll have to ponder that some more, but they really do compliment a host of other foods.

Here, I did something incredibly simple. I mixed some Gorgonzola cheese with Mascarpone Cheese and heaped it on a pear half. I envisioned this as a salad or a starter. But, as I pressed my husband for feedback and advice, he pulled out a box of Triscuits, and began to slice it up for crackers. I momentarily pulled back as though he had really missed the point. But, he was absolutely on to something. It was great. The salt and the crispy texture was a wonderful addition. So, you have a lot of options with this. Cut it into chunks and serve it as an hors d’oeuvre. Place it on a bed of lettuce with a drizzle of fine balsamic vinegar, or slice it up and serve it on crackers for a snack, like Pitts and I did.

Preparation:
Mascarpone Cheese
Gorgonzola Cheese
a lemon
a dish of water
Riviera, or other variety, of pear
Triscuits, Balsamic, Spring greens…or whatever other goodies depending on how you decide to serve it.

This is simple. You will need equal amounts of Mascarpone and Gorgonzola. Determine the amounts depending on how many pears you are serving. I only prepared one pear and I used ½ cup of each cheese. I used a regular grocery store chunk of Gorgonzola. It was nothing special, but good. Mix them together with a fork until well combined.

Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice into a dish of water.  (I tried my trick of soaking the pears in salt water, like I do for apples, and it was not as effective as the lemon water in this scenario). Use a melon baller to cut out the seeds from the pear. I left the stem attached to one side for the sake of appearance. Dip your cut pears into the water to help prevent browning.

Blot the pear halves with a paper towel so that the cheese will adhere a bit better. Finally, use a fork or spoon to gently pile the cheese mixture onto the pear halves, pressing it down with the fork or spoon so that it stays in place nicely.

That’s it. It is really simple and lovely and I hope you try it. If any of you have any magic tricks that keep pears from browning, I’d love to hear them.

Also, if you love the bluish cheeses, you might like to try some of my other blue cheese related recipes like Blue Cheese with Honey, Blue Cheese Coleslaw, Figs and Salami with Stilton, or this Blue Cheese Spread with Dried Cherries and Sweet Pecans. And, if you are looking for another pear dish, try this Ham, Pear and Double Cream Cheese bite.

Also, thanks to my sweet Pitts, who really helped me figure out some camera issues for this post, and ended up taking many of the shots.