For my pear dish I really wanted to make something savoury. I automatically turned to blue cheese since in my mind it is one of the perfect foils for pears. Happily the Flavor Bible agreed! In this recipe I used the following 'flavours' suggested by Page and Dornenburg: Gorgonzola cheese, cinnamon, honey, canola oil, prosciutto, salads - greens, walnuts.

I wanted a combination of flavours and textures in this salad - crisp/salty prosciutto, the creamy gorgonzola cheese, crisp greens, crunchy walnuts, a sweet pear based dressing, and the roasted pear. We had this for dinner last night and I must say it was pretty amazing - mind you, what could go wrong with this combination of ingredients? *smile*

Roasted Pear Salad with Gorgonzola and Prosciutto

Salad
4 thin slices prosciutto
1 large, ripe pear, cut in half and cored
4 T gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup shelled walnuts
4 cups salad greens

Dressing
1/4 cup pear juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp grainy mustard
1 T honey
2 T white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp finely chopped shallot
2 T canola oil

Freshly grated pepper

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay the prosciutto on a baking sheet and bake until crisp - about 5 minutes. Gently lay on paper towels. Set aside.

Lower the heat to 350 degrees.

Place the pears, skin side down, in a baking dish. Mound the gorgonzola cheese in the cavity created when the core was removed. Bake for 15 minutes (or until tender). (note: you may find that some of the cheese has run out of the cavity - just spoon it back in)

Toast the walnuts.

Mix the dressing ingredients together. Check for taste - I didn't add any salt but you may wish to do so.

Arrange the salad greens on 2 plates. Carefully layer the crisp prosciutto on top of the greens. Place the bake pear on top of the prosciutto. Sprinkle with the toasted walnuts. Drizzle with dressing. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated pepper.