Simple Green Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

A Saturday Night Dinner: The Salad

• Servings: 4.

This menu and recipes from our friend David Neibart are intended to be a modular meal, meaning that adults can enjoy it all, while young kids (ages four and under) can peel off parts for themselves – especially this salad, Greenmarket Fried Rice, and the dessert -- Pavlova.  Each course is easy to prepare, and can be served at different hours without losing anything.

The Menu

• Fresh baguette, sliced with aged Gouda
• Simple Green Pear and Blue Cheese Salad
• Seared Scallops with Lime and Cilantro Butter
• Greenmarket Fried Rice
• Pavlova

Ingredients

• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• 1 ripe pear
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (e.g., Danish blue, Maytag, Great Hill, or other crumbly domestic or imported blue cheese)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus a little to toast the pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon very hot mustard (Coleman's English or Lowensenf's Extra or Maille's Fine are all good choices)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Pinch each of sugar, salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves and place them in a salad bowl
2. Cut the pear in half and remove the core and stem. Leaving the peel on, cut the pear into thin, 1/4" slices.
3. Add the pieces of sliced pear along with the dried cranberries and blue cheese to the salad bowl with the lettuce.
4. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a fry pan with a little olive oil and put them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil. Watch closely while you do this because the nuts can quickly turn from brown to burned.
5. Make the vinaigrette dressing by putting all the ingredients into a jar and shaking well. Toss the salad ingredients with the dressing just before you are ready to eat.