Radicchio Salad

with pear and blue cheese, plus a sweet and savory walnut dressing

This Italian radicchio salad has sweet pears, blue cheese, olives, and a delicious honey walnut dressing.

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This Radicchio Salad with Pear and Blue Cheese is one of my favorite cool-season or winter salads to make. I’m a big fan of bitter greens—my Bitter Green Caesar Salad, Grilled Radicchio and Plum Salad, Pink Radicchio and Crab Caesar Salad, the list goes on—and this one fits the bill perfectly. It starts with a bed of sliced radicchio, topped with crunchy and sweet pears (plus Asian pears when I can find them). And don’t forget the salty, briny olives, funky-creamy blue cheese, and my favorite sweet and savory walnut salad dressing (recipe is below!).

This salad is all about balance. There are quite a few bold flavors going on, but once you get everything in one bite, it’s magic. Sweet, savory, bitter, crunchy—it’s all there. What I’m saying is, it’s very good. So good you should make it. Ok, now onto the recipe below…

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Bitter Green Caesar Salad

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Ingredients

• 1 head radicchio sliced

• 1 Asian pear thinly sliced, (optional but highly recommended)

• 1 pear thinly sliced, (Bartlett, Conference, or any variety you like)

• ½ cup assorted olives pitted and torn, (Castelvetrano, Kalamata, Greek, or black)

• 1–2 oz blue cheese crumbled, (Point Reyes, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, or Stilton)

• Flaky salt to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• Sweet and Savory Walnut Dressing (recipe below!)

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all the essential salad ingredients

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Instructions

1. Arrange the sliced radicchio on a serving platter.

2. Scatter the sliced pear and Asian pear over the radicchio.

3. Top with torn olives and crumbled blue cheese.

4. Drizzle generously with walnut dressing, then season with flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper.

5. Serve immediately and enjoy!

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The Sweet and Savory Walnut Dressing

I’ve been wanting to make a version of this sweet and savory walnut salad dressing for a while, and here we are—we made the dressing! It’s packed with chunky, toasted walnuts, has anchovies and garlic for that ever-so-savory flavor, and just a touch of honey to balance it all out. It’s loosely inspired by Bagna Cauda, the flavor packed Italian sauce from Piedmont, but as a salad dressing with nuts and some honey. It’s sweet, very savory, and has some crunch. It’s hitting all the right notes.

Originally, I made this dressing to pair with a radicchio, pear, and blue cheese salad (coming soon!). I wanted something that could stand up to bitter greens, sweet, crunchy fruit, and funky blue cheese—and this does the job perfectly. But, it also works beautifully as a sauce. Drizzle it over roasted veggies, spoon it onto crispy roasted Brussels sprouts, or pour it over some perfectly roasted chicken. So good.

This walnut dressing is quick to make, super versatile, and honestly, just really good. Make a batch today and use it all week long!

sweet and savory walnut dressing with anchovies, garlic, honey and lemon

Ingredients

• ½ C walnuts ~56g, toasted and finely chopped

• ¼ C olive oil

• 1 tsp honey

• ½ lemon juiced

• 2 anchovies finely minced into a paste

• 1 garlic clove grated or finely minced

• salt

• pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10–15 minutes, until fragrant and deep golden brown. Let them cool before finely chopping.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the minced anchovies, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper until well combined.

3. Stir in the olive oil and chopped walnuts. Mix well and adjust seasoning to taste.

Notes:

The dressing will naturally separate as it sits—stir before using. For a smooth, creamy version, blend all ingredients together instead of mixing by hand. The chunky version adds lots of texture, but both are absolutely delicious!

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