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Pear and Walnut Salad with Roquette and Parmesan
and a
Walnut Oil and Mustard Dressing
This is a contemporary salad which has actually been around for quite
a while now. I think it has achieved classic status.
The only thing that needs any preparation to speak of is the
dressing, but the pears do need to be ripe and juicy – comice are perfect for this – and the parmesan needs to be shaved from a
fresh block (if you haven't got any to hand, a good strong cheese like
stilton or feta will do very nicely indeed, but completely forget about using that dirty sock-flavoured sawdust sold in pots,
laughingly labelled `Freshly Grated Parmesan').
If you want to turn this from a starter into a main course just add
some strips of dry-cured ham, smoked duck breast, or sauteed chicken livers.
Serves four
Ingredients:
2 ripe juicy comice pears
1 lemon
1 tblsp white wine vinegar
salt
1 tsp grain mustard
6 tblsp walnut oil
freshly ground black pepper
handful roquette
handful of fresh walnut halves, roughly crushed
small block of fresh parmesan
Method:
Peel and core the pears, then smear with a little lemon juice to prevent them turning brown.
Put the vinegar and a good pinch of salt in a screw-top jar and shake
until the salt has dissolved. Add the mustard and walnut oil, then shake again to emulsify – the emulsion will hold for ten minutes
or so, but give it another jiggle just before you use it to dress the
salad.
Assemble the salad: slice the pears lengthwise into thin segments and
place them rustically on four serving plates along with the roquette, then scatter over the bruised walnuts. Drizzle with the
vinaigrette.
Using a potato peeler, shave the parmesan over the salad, then
`dust' with a little ground black pepper.
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