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I’ve wandered back to this recipe on frenchwomendontgetfat.com over and over again in the past few weeks, but never had the pears and goat cheese on hand at the same time. So last night, I decided it was time to finally try it. On my way to my boyfriend’s, I swung by the Harvest Co-op Market in Central Square. I picked up Bosc pears, fresh goat cheese, and a small wedge of blue cheese. This recipe is incredibly simple and delicious.
The original recipe called for making a yogurt sauce, but I was feeling lazy. It is summer, after all. So instead, I drizzled the dish with honey after removing it from the oven. No yogurt sauce needed! Ta-da! I also went a little light on the cheese. I used the amount called for of goat cheese, but only about half of the called-for blue cheese. The cheeses do melt and mix wonderfully, it just seemed like a lot of cheese as I was piling it on. Feel free to adjust to your taste! The parchment paper papillotes are a little tricky, but that could’ve been because I was at the end of the roll and my pieces were particularly curly. Still, some good squishing and folding will do the trick.
Lesson of the day: en papillote means “in parchment” in French. It is a method of cooking in which the food is put into pouch-like folded parchment paper and then baked. This steams the food. It’s not only for fruit – try it with salmon, veggies, other meats, etc.
Pear and Goat Cheese Papillote
4 pears
juice of 1 lemon (I used a lemon juice squeegie and guess-timated how much lemon juice to use)
4 oz fresh goat cheese
2 oz fresh blue cheese
2 T olive oil
1 T fresh chervil or tarragon (use 1/3-1/2 T if using dried herbs)
Salt and pepper (optional)
Note: This recipe yields 4 smaller servings or 2 platefuls. Divvy up the pears amongst your choice of 2, 3, or 4 servings. The recipe directions are written for 4 servings.
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Peel the pears (optional – I didn’t). Slice into quarters and then cut the quarters into thirds (large chunks). Add lemon juice. (I dumped all the pears into a bowl and smothered them in lemon juice until I had the parchment paper ready.)
3. Cut 8 pieces of parchment paper (use aluminum foil if you don’t have the paper) into squares large enough to hold 1 pear’s worth of pieces and 1 oz. of cheese, with 2 inches extra on each side. Brush 4 squares with olive oil (these will be the bottoms of the papillotes).
4. Arrange the pear slices equally among the 4 oiled squares. Slice the goat cheese and arrange on top of each papillote. Crumble blue cheese on top, sprinkle with chervil (I used dried tarragon leaves), and add salt and pepper if desired.
5. Place the other squares of parchment paper on top of each serving and fold up all edges to make the papillotes. (Double folding each side and pinching in the corners works well.)
6. Place papillotes on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. (If your cheese was fresh out of the fridge, you’ll need closer to 15 for the melted consistency.)
7. When done baking, remove from oven; open each packet and carefully slide onto a plate. Drizzle with honey and serve warm.
Enjoy your summery dessert!
I’d also like to give a shout-out to all Dads, particularly mine! Happy Father’s Day!!! 🙂
mon amour est la vie 