The Good Pear

Pear, pere, poire, any way you spell it, it is one of the major aristocrats of the fruit world. It is also versatile, lending great taste and texture to savory dishes as well as sweets.

Finding a “good” pear is another matter; I am famous (infamous is probably more descriptive) in fruit stands and supermarkets. I will only shop when I have time to be leisurely and inspect the pears without fear of harassment. The pile of rejects mounts quickly as I sort through very gingerly from the enormous pile of pears. My pile of “maybes”, is not quite so big, and the pile of “ahah! Maybe these are it!), is tiny. The produce folks that know me leave me alone. They also know that I respect the pears, not squeezing the top near the stem, not dropping them, and certainly they know I put them back in beautiful arrangements, sometimes better than how I found them.

When the perfect pears are finally plucked out of the bin, they are taken home and ripened until barely soft and juicy. I don’t eat pears that are not juicy (requiring a bath afterwards.) An example of how I serve pears when not simply from a bowl, dead ripe, accompanied by cheese and bread and stout red wine, follows. Enjoy them this season while “good” pears are possible to find.

Good Eating, Good Pears
Carlo