Seasonal French Pears, Mesclun, Cashews and Gorgonzola

We were fortunate to be able to get most of the ingredients for this recipe from my friends at Campagne when I lived in Park City, Utah. They would bring in great produce and cheeses and the salad mix is the same as you would get at many of the gourmet restaurants in Park City.

mesclun (MEHS-kluhn) A combination of fancy, young salad greens once hard to find but now popular and available prewashed in the produce section of your supermarket in the Bag O Salad section. The mix usually contains a combination of arugula, dandelion, frisee, mizuma, oak leaf, radicchio and sorrel.

Gorgonzola – (gohr-guhn-ZOH-lah) Named for the Italian city where it is made, this cow’s milk cheese is rich and creamy with a slightly pungent flavor. When aged over 6 months, both the flavor and the aroma become stronger….much stronger.

Some people think its stinky, but if you like strong cheese, you will love gorgonzola.

The salad dressing is a simple tarragon mustard vinaigrette.

This photo shows cashews instead of pine nuts but either would be great on this salad.