Pear Salad

Serves: 4

Dressing
1 cup port wine
3 cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
1 piece star anise
5 black peppercorns
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
I tsp. Dijon mustard
1 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Salad
2 small bunches/heads of frisee lettuce
2 heads of endive, individual leaves picked off and left whole (use red as well if available)
1 ripe Bartlett pear, 1 quarter pear per salad, cored and cut into long slices
1 Asian pear, 1 quarter pear per salad, cored and cut into long slices
4 long slices of prosciutto, or high-quality country ham
4 oz. blue cheese (Giusti uses Rogue River Creamery Smokey Blue)

For the dressing: Combine the port wine, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, star anise, thyme and bay leaf in a small pot and reduce by two–thirds. Strain the hot mixture and discard the aromatics. Allow the reduced port to cool and whisk in the Dijon mustard. Now slowly whisk in the olive oil and then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assembling the salad: Dress the endive and frisee with the port wine vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper if needed. On each plate lay one long slice of prosciutto down. On top of the prosciutto, shingle the pears as desired spreading them out evenly. Take the dressed greens and evenly distribute them atop the shingled pears. Finally crumble 1 ounce of the blue cheese over top each salad.