As I mentioned in the first “Tasty Tuesdays” post of October last week, October is “Vegetarian Month”, so all of the recipes featured in this month’s “Tasty Tuesdays” posts will feature recipes from one of my long-time favorite vegetarian cookbooks: “Laurel’s Kitchen Recipes”. In addition to October being “Vegetarian Month”, this month is also “National Pear and Pineapple Month”, so the next couple of “Tasty Tuesdays” posts will feature… You guessed it… pears and pineapples, beginning with PEARS! So read on for a simple recipe which features this tasty fruit.
In the above-mentioned cookbook, there was a section called (intriguingly enough) “Innocent Sweets”, and here’s what Laurel Robertson (and her co-authors Carol Flinders and Brian Ruppenthal) had to say about PEARS:
“In winter, Bosc pears and Winter Nelis are often available at bargain prices. Even if they are rock-hard, bake them like yams, for the sweetest, most delicious, and easiest dessert imaginable. They don’t want stuffing like apples; you just stand them on their bottom in a pan (line it with brown paper if you want to save scrubbing later) and bake at about 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or so, until the syrupy juice had broken out and the pear is soft. We usually serve them as is, but you might want to make a gingery sauce or pass toasted nuts or feta cheese to nibble alongside.”
Well… That wasn’t much of a recipe, was it? However, it sounds like an excellent way to enjoy “rock-hard” pears! I don’t know about you, but I can’t even count the number of “rock-hard” pears that I’ve brought home and hoped that they would ripen quickly. Had I read — and remembered — Laurel’s “recipe for Baked Pears back then, I could have been enjoying this “innocent sweets” treat much sooner!
However, my first thought for serving them wasn’t what Laurel et al suggested — serving ’em “as is” or with “toasted nuts or feta cheese” (a cheese I still need to try, actually). Instead, I thought about serving them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream — though I guess that really isn’t a vegetarian option since “ice cream” isn’t even mentioned in Laurel’s cookbook! So… I guess I’ll toast some almonds and/or give feta cheese a try. I’ll certainly let y’all know what I decide to have as an accompaniment to my Baked Pears.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts about Baked Pears, this week’s featured recipe, so please take a moment to leave a comment below. Oh, and if you have any favorite recipes that feature pears, I’d love it if you would share them with me, too! In the meantime…
Take care!