Autumn, besides providing us with apples, plums and grapes, also offers us the less popular pears. We should love them more, because this gracefully shaped fruit is not only lovely when eaten raw, but also very delicious when baked or roasted.
1. You can make a tasty salad out of pears. Peel and cube the fruit, and then place it in a small bowl and season with some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add some hard cheese, toasted walnuts and grated celery, and sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground black pepper. This salad makes a great dinner by itself, or as a side dish for grilled meat. You may enrich the salad with a few tablespoons of thick yogurt.
2. Roasted pears are a great choice for an autumn barbecue dinner. Peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the cores, or cut the fruit into slices and roast them for a minute on the grill rack.
3. Pears go very well with desserts. Don’t panic if you receive some unexpected guests and you don’t have time to bake a cake. Cut some pears in half, remove the cores and place them onto dessert plates. Spoon on some vanilla ice cream and decorate with grated dark chocolate.
4. Every housewife has a quick cake recipe, which can be made special by using any fruit in season. A spectacular cake can be made with pieces of pear. Cut several slits into quartered pears and place the fruit on top of the cake. The pears will slightly open during baking, making a very showy homemade dessert. Sprinkle a little cinnamon and some almond slices on top.
5. Standing pears look beautiful on a plate if you use them in a puff pastry recipe. You can buy really good quality frozen or refrigerated pastry dough if you don’t have time to make your own. Cut the dough into strips, and then roll the strips around the peeled pears sprinkled with a little cinnamon. Place the pears on baking paper-lined trays and bake them for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
6. Peel the fruit and roll it into melted chocolate or caramel. You may decorate chocolate or caramel pears with cake sprinkles, almond slices or coarsely minced walnuts.
7. Cut the pears in halves, remove the seeds and fill the resulting cavity with jam or dried fruit. Stack the stuffed pears on a tray lined with baking paper. You may sprinkle on some coarsely ground walnuts and bake a special dessert in a few minutes. In fact, baked pears can also be served as a side dish alongside roasts.
Enjoy!