Radicchio with pears and blue cheese

In my garden right now I have some beautiful Radicchio - red chicory. This is the variety "Firestorm".

Here's one, prepped for use:-

This gives me the opportunity to put it together with the pears I harvested 10 days ago to make one of my favourite salads:- radicchio with pears, blue cheese and walnuts.

This is a fabulous combination - a long-time favourite. It works with any good blue cheese, but this time I chose Danish Blue, which has a really strong tangy flavour which nicely complements the sweetness of the ripe pears. These are the ingredients of this super-simple, easy to prepare, but stunningly tasty and visually impressive dish;
Radicchio (red chicory)
Pears
Blue cheese
Toasted walnuts
Salad-dressing of your choice

The dish is ridiculously easy to prepare. Separate the radicchio into individual leaves, and wash carefully. Dice some blue cheese. Cut and de-core the pear, leaving the skin on unless it's particularly coarse. Toast a handful of walnuts (toasting them intensifies the flavour). Make a vinaigrette dressing. Combine all solid ingredients; drizzle with the vinaigrette and plate-up.

Serve with a nice crusty bread, such as this Fougasse.

This is a real taste sensation: crisp, slightly bitter radicchio; soft, sweet pears; sharp, tangy cheese; crunchy walnuts for nutty warmth and texture; and that drizzle of vinaigrette to bring it all together. You can't fail to enjoy it - especially if served with a nice glass of chilled Rosé wine...

Ali: when we have that special meal at Hazel's I think I'll do a small-scale version of this as our starter. OK?

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P.S. While I'm on the subject of pears, I just wanted to show you one more photo. Yesterday, I sampled the first of the pickled pears that I made about a month ago. Here's how I ate them:- with some cold ham, some extra-mature Cheddar cheese and a home-grown tomato. I loved the pears. They were sweet yet savoury at the same time.

I think the pears would go really well with the walnut and honey soda bread that Janet from Plantaliscious posted about recently.

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P.S. I'm retrospectively amending this post and adding a link to comply with the rules for the "Simple and in Season" link-up on Ren Behan's Fabulicious Food.