Seasonal Recipe No.201 – Radicchio, pear, blue cheese + walnut salad

This recipe from Riverford Organic Farms is a beautiful combination of flavours and texures. We’ll be using the radicchio and mixed salad leaves in Camel CSA’s weekly boxes with Cornish blue cheese, English pears and Cornish sea salt.

Serves: 4
Preparation/cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 head radicchio, tough core removed, leaves shredded
100g mixed salad leaves, or shredded lettuce leaves
small knob of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 pears, cored + sliced
150g walnut pieces
2 tbsp clear honey
splash balsamic vinegar
sea salt + black pepper
200g stilton, crumbled
extra virgin olive oil to finish

Method
Mix the radicchio and salad leaves together in a large bowl. In a large frying pan, heat the butter and oil. Add the pears. Cook on a reasonably high heat until the pears have softened and turned golden brown.

Add the walnuts, honey and a good splash of balsamic vinegar. Season well with salt and pepper. Stir gently to combine, remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly. Add a tablespoon or two more of good olive oil. Pour the pears into the salad leaves and lightly toss to combine.

Either serve on one large platter, sprinkled with the stilton, or on individual plates. Drizzle over a little more olive oil to serve.

• Try Sarah Raven’s Radicchio and lemon pasta

Seasonal local food recipe No.161: Delia’s celery soup with blue cheese

Cornish blue cheese works beautifully in this flavourful recipe from Delia Smith. The celery in our veg boxes this week comes from St Kew Harvest, whose artisan bread would be delicious with this soup.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
450g celery (1 large head, trimmed weight)
150g blue cheese, rind removed and crumbled
50g butter
1 potato (about 200g), peeled and diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
570 ml vegetable stock 
150 ml single cream
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method
First of all separate the stalks of celery from the base and trim, reserving the leaves for a garnish. Scrub them in cold water, drain them, then slice across into thinnish slices. Now in a large saucepan melt the butter and stir in the celery, the chopped potato and the onion. Stir everything around to get a good coating of butter, then put a lid on the pan and, keeping the heat at minimum, allow the vegetables to sweat for 10 minutes to release their juices. Then uncover, pour in the stock and bring it up to simmering point.

Cover again and cook gently for 30 minutes: after that test that the vegetables are tender and, if not, re-cover and continue to cook until they are. Next remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream, then liquidise the soup along with the crumbled cheese until it is quite smooth. Return the soup to the rinsed-out pan and re-heat very gently. Taste and season with salt and pepper.