Pears With Port and Blue Cheese
By: Anonymous
Published: Monday, March 1, 2010 - 3:06am

Ingredients




3 cups Water
1/2 cup Dry white wine
1/2 cup Good port wine
2 tablespoons Granulated sugar
1 Cinnamon stick
2 whl cloves - (to 3)
1/4 teaspoon Red pepper flakes
4 Firm Bartlett pears
1/2 cup Extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1/4 pound Gorgonzola cheese
(or other blue cheese)
1/2 pound Mesclun
(or choice of fresh young salad greens)
1/2 pound Thinly-sliced prosciutto, Westphalian,
or real Virginia ham properly cooked,
and cooled

Preparation

1 Bring the water, wine, sugar, and spices to a boil in a pot just large enough to hold the pears. Lower the heat and simmer 5 minutes. 2 While the poaching liquid is cooking, peel, but do not core, the pears. (Use a vegetable peeler for the neatest job with the least waste.) 3 Poach the pears, uncovered, 20 minutes, or until they are just tender to the tip of a knife. Remove from the heat, and cool the pears in the liquid another 20 minutes. You can refrigerate them (still in the liquid) for later use. 4 When ready to serve, remove the pears from the liquid, cut in half lengthwise, and remove the core with a teaspoon. With a sharp knife, slice each pear half into 1/4-inch thick lengthwise slices, leaving the neck of the pear unsliced so that you can "fan" the pear half on its serving plate. 5 Make the garnish by combining the oil and vinegar in a bowl with the crumbled Gorgonzola. Add the mesclun and toss. 6 On each serving plate, place a pear half at the 6 o'clock position, "fanning" it across the plate. Divide the prosciutto into 8 portions and drape one portion across the middle of each serving plate, covering the top half of the pear fan. Garnish each plate with 1/4 cup dressed greens, placed in the 12 o'clock position, above the prosciutto. 7 This recipe yields 8 servings.