How good are pears at the moment?! Last week we had friends coming for dinner so I thought I would make the most of the opportunity to play around with a new salad. I decided to play around with the familiar pairings of pear and parmesan to create a salad of pear, rocket, aged parmesan, sun-dried raisins and caramelised walnuts. Full of fresh seasonal produce and dressed with olive oil from the south west and LOTS of fresh lemon juice, it was super delicious. This will definitely be on repeat. Read on for the how-to on how you can make this easy peasy wintery pear salad yourself.

Pear salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 decent handfuls of rocket
  • 1-2 fresh pears (I like to use the hard ones for extra crunch!)
  • 1-2 handful/s of walnuts
  • Decent knob of butter
  • 2 teaspoons brown sugar
  • 50g-75g parmesan, shaved
  • 1 handful sun-dried raisins
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • Olive oil, to taste

Method:

  1. Heat a pan and melt the butter. Mix in the brown sugar. Throw in the walnuts and coat until well caramelised. Transfer to a dish and set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, dress the rocket leaves with a little olive oil and lemon juice. Transfer to your presentation dish.
  3. Slice the pear/s in thin wedges and layer throughout the dish.
  4. Add the shaved parmesan, raisins and the walnuts (I left them to be cooled before adding). Lightly toss.
  5. Dress with olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon.
  6. Enjoy!