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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Baked Pears (or tomatoes) and Feta

People have been eating fruit and cheese together since... well, since whenever.  A long time, let's just say.  This recipe began with Halley, who taught me to make her mom's famously simple tomatoes with feta... except that one night after a long day of teaching, there were simply no tomatoes to be had in the house.  But there WERE a couple of pears leftover from a trip to the farmer's market a week earlier with our old college roommate, Christine.  Substitute tomato for pear and voila... a new recipe.  Both recipes are amazingly simple to make, if you've got about half an hour or so to wait for them to bake.  They are also the perfect serving size for 1 or 2 people... or multiply for like 50 :)

For a single serving of this recipe, you will need:
- 1 ripe pear or tomato
- roughly half a cup of crumbled feta cheese (I like the kind that comes with Mediterranean herbs mixed in)
- approx 1/2 T olive oil

For baked pears, slice the pear in half (longitude-wise).  Spoon out the middle seed area so that there's a handy little hole in the center.  The more you spoon out, the more room for feta :)  Fill the center with feta and place pear halves in a small baking dish.  Drizzle olive oil over the feta-topped area.  Bake for 25-30 mins @ 350 degrees F.

For baked tomatoes, slice the tomato in half (latitude-wise).  Set tomato halves in small baking dish and cover tops with feta.  Drizzle olive oil over tomatoes.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins.

These make the perfect accompaniment to any meal, particularly meals with Italian or Mediterranean entrees.  Bon appetit!