Roast pears with shallots, bay, lemon and thyme

Autumn

Sometimes it’s tricky to know what to do with pears. They don’t cook down to a soft, fluffy pulp like apples. Pears like to stick up for themselves, hold their own in the face of adversity (heat). Happily, all is not lost. Roasting pears is the answer – to pretty much everything. In this recipe,
I use bay leaves and juniper berries, as well as orange zest and thyme. The pears are amazing with good-quality sausages, roast pigeon, or venison, or as part of a wider cheese or charcuterie board.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

6 juniper berries
8 large medium-ripe pears, peeled and halved
6 shallots, thinly sliced
8 bay leaves
Pared zest of 1 orange
1 small handful of thyme sprigs
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6. Crush the juniper in a pestle and mortar until fairly fine.

Arrange the pears in a suitably sized roasting tin. Scatter the shallots, bay leaves, strips of orange zest and the thyme sprigs over the top and sprinkle over the crushed juniper. Trickle everything with the olive oil, season the pears well with salt and pepper and tumble everything together.

Place in the oven and roast the pears and shallots for 20–30 minutes, or until tender, turning once or twice with a spatula during roasting. The pears and shallots should be lovely and soft and caramelising around the edges when you take them out. Serve at once.

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