Salty sweet, one tasty tart

The cheeses used in the recipe are also Italian. Gorgonzola is a creamy, rich blue cheese made with cream instead of milk. Mascarpone is a cream cheese that has a slightly looser, creamier texture than regular Philadelphia cream cheese. However, you can use substitutions for both cheeses. Any blue cheese that you can get in the supermarket can be substituted for Gorgonzola, and cream cheese can be used instead of mascarpone cheese. The substitutions will change the taste and texture slightly, but the tart will still be spectacular, especially when served with a sweet — but acidic — drink, alcoholic or not.

For easy entertaining, you can make this tart very quickly and elegantly with store-bought puff pastry, but I prefer to make a basic pastry crust from scratch when cooking for family.

Gorgonzola Tart with Pears

serves six to eight

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 extra large egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

7 ounces Gorgonzola cheese

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese

2 pears

juice of one lemon

3 tablespoon chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. To make the pastry, mound the flour in a bowl. Add the butter and, using the tips of your fingers, work the mixture until it has the consistency of crumbs. Add the egg yolk and the milk and knead quickly until it is well amalgamated and smooth. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a least one hour before using for the best results.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

3. Roll out the pastry dough and put it in a 9-inch flan tin with a removable bottom. Prick the pastry with a fork.

4. Bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until it’s slightly golden. Remove it from the oven and let it cool.

5. Beat both cheeses together.

6. Peel, core and thinly slice the pears, then sprinkle lemon juice on them.

7. Spread the cheese mixture over the tart shell. Add the pear slices and sprinkle with the walnuts.

8. Arrange on a platter and serve. This would go well with a sweet white wine or a port.

Alternatives:

If you do not want to use pastry, you can simply peel and core one pear per person, but leave the stem on the pear and take a portion out of the bottom of the pear so it can stand on its base. Sprinkle the pear with lemon juice. Add the chopped walnuts to the cheese mixture, and stuff it into the hole in the pear. Decorate it with sprigs of fresh mint and caramelized walnut pieces.

For those who are allergic to nuts, you can make a crumble mixture instead. Use a half-cup of sugar, a half-cup of butter and a cup of whole meal flour with some oatmeal. Add some grated lemon peel to it and spread it onto the raw pastry dough. Add the pear slices, dot it with a little butter, sprinkle a little confectioner’s sugar on it and bake as before. To finish it, you can glaze it with apricot jelly. Just heat the jelly slightly with a little water and brush it on top of the cooked, cooled tart.