Penne in a Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce with Roasted Pears

Firstly, an admission ~ I wanted to refer back to the post about this lovely blue cheese pasta recipe which I wrote in 2010 but the whole thing seems to have disappeared!   So, instead I referred back to my old Sudden Lunch! files and have repeated the whole thing, virtually verbatim, here! 

I had lunch for dinner last night - makes a change! The reason being that I was out all day and was absolutely starving, darlings, by the time I got in. So, my evening lunch was whipped up quickly out of a few things I had laying around the place, notably some award winning and scrummy Cornish Blue Cheese and some Butterscotch Roasted Pears. I was not that surprised, therefore, when I made this dish as it is an old standby of mine. 

Please pin for future reference!

Years ago, at work, I did a dessert of Butterscotch Baked Pears. It sold well but I found I was left with a couple of portions; too small an amount to offer on the evening’s menu but too big to throw away. (Actually, I think almost everything is too big to throw away – I can’t abide waste, my dears, which is why I wrote Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.

Anyhoo, the upshot is that I stirred the pears into a Gorgonzola sauce I had made, and it was divine. One customer trailed sadly after me for weeks until I gave him the recipe (I was a little embarrassed).  The reason I had some of these pears laying around last night is that I was making some Butterscotch Pear Ice Cream (see Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine for the recipe!).


The basic Pasta in Blue Cheese Sauce recipe, for which I now use the wonderful Cornish Blue, goes thus …

Penne Pasta in  Blue Cheese Alfredo – for 2

200ml double cream

15g butter

25g freshly grated Parmesan

50g crumbled Cornish Blue Cheese (or Gorgonzola, Cambozola, Stilton, etc)

salt and pepper to taste - I myself, personally, would be heavy on freshly ground black pepper

225g (raw weight) penne (or other) pasta - cooked

~   Gently heat the butter and the cream together, stirring, till the butter has melted into the cream.
~   Add the 50g of shredded Parmesan and the blue cheese and stir till melted.
~   Slowly bring almost to a boil, then immediately turn down the heat and simmer gently, still stirring quite a lot but only for a minute or so, maybe less, till you have a smooth creamy sauce.

~   Toss together with the cooked pasta till all hot.

~   Stir in a handful of butterscotch baked pears or, perhaps, sprinkle with crunchy toasted walnuts.

Butterscotch Baked Pears

500g ripe but still a little firm pears – about 4

85g butter

85g soft light brown sugar

pinch of salt

~   Preheat oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~   Peel and core and halve, slice or dice the pears according to how you intend serving them.
~   Put the butter, sugar and salt into a shallow oven proof dish and heat in the oven for a few minutes till melted.
~   Turn the pears in the buttery goo to coat.
~   Cover with foil and bake for about 45 - 60 minutes till the pears are tender and reclining in a butterscotch sauce.

Serve with ice cream or cream, in cakes, pancakes, etc. or add to the above pasta dish.

Who needs David Attenborough? (answer below) Also Caribbean Sugar Cakes.

~  Menu  ~

Penne Pasta with Grape Tomatoes and Boursin

Glass of Red Wine

Coffee and a Sugar Cake

Exciting time in the cockpit this morning!

Firstly near the shore we saw a leaping of tiny silver fish. This always looks so lovely but it isn’t!  Soon whatever was chasing them (death in the shape of a larger fish) starting jumping from the sea, landing in the midst of the sparkling little fish and trying to eating them. 

A group of pelicans had assembled on the beach and they suddenly all flew up at once and dived (dove?) into the affray grabbing whatever breakfast they could.  Boobies, attracted by the fracas, joined in and then a frigate bird swept down from the heights to try his luck. He was chased off by the boobies, one of whom made a surprisingly un-booby like noise; a menacing growl.

All of this right by our boat as we were drinking our honey and lemon. (Aside – many years ago whilst sharing a cold we had a honey and lemon drink for breakfast and it was so delicious we have never looked back, this is now our morning drink of choice. Just half a lemon and 2 heaped teaspoons of honey per cup, topped up with boiling water, it is even better than coffee!  Although I do then follow it up with a coffee, just to be on the safe side!)

We have been buying some tiny sweet grape tomatoes but they don’t last long in our less than perfect refrigeration. Today it was a case of use ‘em or lose ‘em so I used them.  I cooked them in some olive oil together with a little finely chopped red onion and then tossed the resulting rustically textured sauce into some penne pasta together with a little Boursin herb and garlic, and Fanny’s my aunt, so to speak.  Some pangrattato would've been good  but c’est la vie.

For dessert I had a sugar cake, something I have become quite partial to out here which is a shame as they are seriously unhealthy.  Basically sugar cakes are made by melting brown sugar and stirring in coconut and/or nuts (often large pieces of almond) and they are usually flavoured with ginger.

Caribbean Sugar Cake

225 ml water
900g light brown sugar
900g freshly grated coconut (but if fresh not available use my recipe here)
1 tsp ground ginger,
½ tsp of cream of tartar
coarsely chopped almonds (or other nuts of choice)

~ Bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and then simmer to a light syrup.

~ Add the coconut, the ginger and the cream of tarter cook till the mixture easily leaves the side of the pan.

~ Remove from the heat and beat with a spoon for 5 minutes!

~ Add chopped nuts and mix in thoroughly.

~ Drop tablespoonfully onto a greased baking sheet and leave to harden. 

~ Have a lie down till your arm stops hurting. 

~ When the cakes are dried out store in an airtight container.

David Attenborough

I think we all need Sir David Attenborough who, for anyone who hasn’t heard of him, is a hugely respected naturalist (I think that’s the right word, I don’t mean he spends a lot of time in the nude) and broadcaster who has, for over fifty years been showing us the wonders of the natural world, for which I thank him.