Pear and walnut salad

This is the last salad of my Pear Salad Week! 

Sliced pears, roasted walnuts, and nobs of robust Roquefort cheese float over a bed of baby romaine and frisee lettuces. The whole shebang is dressed with my very favorite autumn salad vinaigrette that I've been making for years. Props to Martha Stewart for the recipe, though please note that I reduce the apple cider by half in a saucepan to make it more intense. The vinaigrette works fab with apple and walnut salads too, so I always have a small container of it in the fridge this time of year when apples are freshly picked and abundant. A salad tossed with this vinaigrette is a perfect match with a cider glazed pork roast.

Autumn cider vinaigrette

1 shallot, minced

1 tablespoon apple cider (reduced by half)

2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar

1/4 cup walnut oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

I could keep going with these pear salads, of course—pears integrate easily into all sorts of sweet or savory meals. And although we've picked the last of our pears from the trees, we still have about a dozen ripening in a big wooden bowl. Hmmm... I see another French pear tart in our near future! Check out this unusual Cantaloupe, mango and pear slaw.