Roasted Pear with Honey and Rosemary

In the interest of experimentation plus the fact we all enjoy roasted pears, I trialed this roasted pear with honey and rosemary recipe with three varieties of pears. I used one Bosc, one D’Anjou, and one Bartlett. All were similar sizes and levels of ripeness. My favourite and the one I used for this recipe was the Bosc pear.

Sliced into 8 slices of 5mm thickness each, this pear roasted to tender and mellow with slightly caramelized edges in 10 to 15 minutes. The flavour and the shape also provided a better fit with the sourdough slice and rosemary-scented honey.

Any of the pears would have worked to meet individual tastes. I would just note that not all pears roast equally and one should look for a bit of caramelization other than just tenderness to consider the slices ready for topping this scrumptiously crispy sourdough with a mix of fruity, salty, creamy, and herby delight. I thought the salt and feta might be a bit much. I used 1/8 of a teaspoon of Maldon flake salt and it wasn’t too salty at all. In fact, it just accentuated the sweetness of the pear.

As a starter, this recipe is a two-person treat. With a salad as an entrée, it feeds one. We enjoyed the remaining roasted slices with salad greens and another sprinkle of feta. It was pear-fect!

I believe the first comment—accompanied by a gasp—was “Oh my goodness, that was good.” There were a lot of exuberantly happy eaters in my kitchen when I laid out a platter of these gorgeous roasted pears with honey and rosemary toasts for a pre-dinner nibble. 

As the recipe header suggests, these are indeed a perfect bite of sweet and savory and could be either an elegant appetizer or part of a rustic dinner alongside a simply dressed bowl of peppery arugula or some bright spinach. They look quite fancy although they’re ridiculously quick to assemble and bake…and the recipe lends itself easily to scaling for 1 to 100. 

I found that Bosc pears work quite well, perhaps preferred over Bartletts or the D’Anjou variety, and just-ripe fruit (rather than overly ripe and soft) is also preferable so that you can slice it cleanly into even-width pieces. (You want all of the slices to be the same thickness so that they finish roasting and browning at the same rate. For a similar reason—and to prevent burning—I’d recommend slicing the pear no thinner than 1/4 inch or else you might risk burning the fruit and/or having a hard time scraping up the slices from the parchment.) I also think that substituting fresh thyme leaves for the rosemary wouldn’t be a bad idea!

This is a really nice late morning or afternoon snack. Roasted pears are very versatile, and I would recommend roasting a few pears and using them over a few days in various dishes. I put some extra slices in salad. They are also delicious over vanilla ice cream with a little rum – rosemary optional. Nice contrast and crunch with a sprinkle of flaky salt!

Wonderful! Who could go wrong with the roasted pear + honey + cheese + bread, warm? I used one Bartlett and one D’Anjou, and the D’Anjou was a bit sturdier, which I would recommend for the future. The ripe Bartlett, after baking, was a bit on the fragile side and somewhat past merely tender. I also love the idea of roasting up some pears as suggested – definitely more than one! – and having them ready for a snack and/or atop a green salad. This works well for me as a snack or as one part of a multi-part meal, maybe including a soup, but seems a little skimpy even as a light entrée.

This savory snack meal was terrific, very tasty, and was ready in less than 15 minutes, perfect at the end of the day with a green salad.

I used a firm-ripe Bartlett pear, sliced a bit thick into five slabs, and dabbed each slice with honey before roasting. The pear was very sweet so I used only one teaspoon of honey. My sprig of rosemary was about three inches long, and after I minced the leaves, measured a heaping teaspoon — I wondered whether that would be too much (it was not too much, just right).

Next time, I might pop the bread into the oven for a few minutes to toast with the roasting pear, instead of using the frying pan as suggested by the recipe.

What to do with that big box of pears you receive every December? This. And other pear-containing things, but start with this because it’s breakfast, it’s lunch, it’s an after-school snack and an hors d’oeuvre, and those twelve pears all ripen at the very same moment. Roasting pears makes it easier to eat more of them, and as the author suggests, they are perfect on a green salad with a little red onion and a white balsamic vinaigrette.