Pear, Stilton and Walnut Salad with Bitter Leaves

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide shallow serving plate or bowl
• •Small frying pan for toasting walnuts
• •Small bowl or jam jar for dressing

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the walnuts

   Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Stay close. Shake the pan every so often and wait until they start to smell warm and toasty, like a biscuit tin left in the sun. This takes three or four minutes, but your nose will tell you before the clock does. The moment they darken a shade, tip them onto a plate. They'll keep cooking in the pan if you leave them, and burnt walnuts are bitter in the wrong way.

   If the walnuts taste stale or papery before toasting, they are old. Fresh walnuts, bought in season from a good source, taste sweet and faintly milky. Stale ones taste of cardboard and no amount of toasting will save them.
2. 2

   Make the dressing

   Spoon the mustard into a small bowl or jam jar. Add the cider vinegar and the honey. Stir until smooth, then pour in the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking or shaking as you go. Season with salt and pepper. Taste it on a leaf. It should be sharp enough to stand up to the Stilton but not so sharp it makes you wince. Adjust with a drop more honey or a splash more vinegar until it sits right.

3. 3

   Prepare the pears

   Quarter the pears lengthways, cut out the cores, and slice each quarter into three or four long pieces. The pears need to be ripe. Press a thumb gently near the stem: if it gives slightly, you're there. If it doesn't, the pear will be chalky and no dressing in the world will rescue it. If it gives too much, you've got a pear for cooking, not a salad. Slice them just before you assemble. Pear flesh browns quickly and nobody wants that.

   Comice pears are softer and more perfumed, best when you want the pear to melt against the cheese. Conference are firmer, with a bit of grip. Both work. Let the market decide.
4. 4

   Assemble the salad

   Lay the chicory leaves and rocket on a wide plate or shallow bowl. Don't toss them yet. Scatter the pear slices among the leaves, then crumble the Stilton over in rough, uneven pieces. Some large, some small. Uniformity isn't the point. Break the toasted walnuts roughly with your hands and let them fall where they fall. Spoon the dressing over everything, not too much, just enough to coat the leaves lightly. Scatter the parsley over the top if you have it. Carry the plate to the table before anyone asks what's for dinner.

Chef Tips

• •The Stilton is the heart of this. Buy a piece from a proper cheesemonger if you can, something that smells of cellars and has veins of blue running all the way through. Supermarket Stilton in plastic will do, but it won't be the same. You want it at room temperature, crumbled by hand into rough, craggy pieces. Never cubed. The irregular edges catch the dressing and that matters.
• •Chicory is the bitter leaf this salad needs. If you can't find it, use radicchio or a handful of watercress instead. What you're after is something that pushes back against the richness of the cheese. Lettuce won't do it. You need a leaf with an opinion.
• •This makes a fine first course for Christmas dinner. It goes before a roast the way a good overture goes before a concert: it sharpens the appetite without filling anyone up. It also pairs well with a glass of something sweet. A small pour of Sauternes or a dry Madeira, if you're that way inclined.

Advance Preparation

• •The dressing can be made a day ahead and stored in a jar in the fridge. Shake it well before using and let it come to room temperature, as cold olive oil turns sluggish and won't coat the leaves properly.
• •Toast the walnuts up to three days ahead and keep them in an airtight jar. They lose their crunch quickly once exposed to air.
• •Do not slice the pears until the moment of assembly. They brown within minutes, and a salad with grey pears is a sad thing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)