A delicious Blue Cheese and Pears Carpaccio to get you started!
We have been travelling for a month and just came back a few days ago. I can’t believe we missed Thanksgiving and an occasion to cook and eat! But we had plenty of food in our time in Europe. We were lucky to eat at very good tables in France, Spain and Portugal. I will soon work on recipes that I brought back with me from this trip and can’t wait to try and share with you.
In the meantime, I feel like a little lightness is needed after so much food (for us because we were travelling, for you because maybe of Thanksgiving?). Next time you have guests over, I recommend you make the following recipe of Blue Cheese and Pears Carpaccio. It is a perfect appetizer, light and fresh with plenty of flavors with the roasted nuts, blue cheese and expresso dressing.
What you will need to make the Blue Cheese and Pears Carpaccio
A mandoline to slice the pears very thin and neat.
If you have a good knife, you can also do it by hand, but it is just faster to use a mandoline, and it also allows you to have all the slices the same size.
I have a very basic one that look just like this one (click here). You don’t need anything fancy. If you don’t have a mandoline at home and go buy one, make sure you have the option to slice to different thickness.
That’s it!
What are the ingredients?
Pears: you want them to be ripe enough to taste good, but not too soft or you want be able to slice them nicely.
Walnuts: raw unsalted, we will roast them
Fresh thyme: for the finishing touch
Blue cheese: it pairs so well with walnuts and pears.
For the dressing: olive oil, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar.
A cup of expresso: we also add a real cup of expresso. I love the subtle aroma of coffee in the dressing
Roast your nuts
To get that delicious, toasted taste, roast your nuts in a pan. It takes no time at all, and you don’t need to add any oils. Just heat the pan, toss the nuts in it and cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. You really want to toss them around or they will burn. That’s it!
Blue Cheese and Pears Carpaccio
Ingredients
- 4 small pears
- 40 g walnuts
- 4 sprigs of thyme
- 100 g blue cheese
For the dressing
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 6 tbsp expresso coffee
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Roast the walnuts in a pan for 4 to 5 minutes. Crush them into small pieces.
- In a bowl, stir well the oil, vinegars, and coffee. You want to create an emulsion. Add salt and pepper.
- Slice the pears using a mandolin and nicely set them on the plates.
- Divide nuts and blue cheese between the plates. Add a couple of tablespoons of dressing to each plate, sprinkle some fresh thyme and serve immediately.
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