Composed Pear Salad With Port Vinaigrette Recipe, Spotlight on Pears, Anti-inflammatory Foods and Hand Workouts

When the results of a heart-health study are announced, it’s time to stop the presses. News that heart disease and stroke are linked to inflammation caused by diet lets me know that we are right on track with The Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter and my commitment to bringing you healthful recipes that taste so good, you’ll almost feel guilty for eating them! 

Details from the research are below, but the main takeaway is that one group of foods increases inflammation, while another group decreases it. This issue’s recipe includes many foods on the “good” list…

Composed Pear Salad With Port Vinaigrette

• Composed Pear Salad With Port Vinaigrette

  This dish is made for the fall, when pears are bountiful across the US. It’s also an effortless way to put together a composed salad for a brunch, a lunch or even a meatless supper with a combination of ingredients that is a little surprising…and totally delicious. While you can use poached pears or even grill pear halves just as you would bell peppers, for an elegant meal in minutes, pick a pear variety that tastes best au naturel (see the Healthy Ingredient Spotlight below to get familiar with varieties besides Bartlett). The vinaigrette is great on everything, so if you have extra, enjoy it on steamed veggies or even as a marinade for chicken breasts.

  Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup good-quality red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons port wine
  • 1 tablespoon honey, preferably eucalyptus honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
  • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 cups salad greens, such as mesclun or a mix of frisée, arugula and mâche, torn if needed
  • 2 ripe, unpeeled pears, such as Bartlett, Anjou, Comice or Starkrimson, halved and cored
  • 4 tablespoons Gorgonzola Dolce or another creamy and mild blue cheese
  • 1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
  • 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds 

  Directions

  To make the vinaigrette, add the vinegar, port, honey, salt and pepper to a blender. Turn on the machine and slowly trickle in the olive oil through the cap in the lid, processing until emulsified. Divide the salad greens among four plates. Center a pear half, cut side up, over the greens on each plate, and fill the center of each pear with a spoonful of the cheese. Drizzle a tablespoon of the vinaigrette over the pears and greens, then sprinkle on equal amounts of the nuts and pomegranate seeds.
  

  Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Versatile Pears

It’s time for pears to get the recognition that their seasonal cousin apples do. A medium pear has just 100 calories, 5 grams of fiber, vitamins C and K, a smattering of minerals and zero fat. Nearly 90% of the pears grown in the US come from the three West Coast states, but Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania are also producers, along with small farms around the country.

Pears are a wonderful ingredient in many dishes, adding sweetness to a vegetable soup or being the star of a dessert like a tart, but only the firmer varieties can stand up to cooking, whether poaching, baking, grilling, roasting or sautéing. 

Among the most widely available varieties are:

Anjou Green and Red: These are great for snacking and cooking, and they’re available from fall through the following summer.

Bartlett Red and Yellow: Best enjoyed raw, these are the first pears harvested each year, but their season only goes through December. A Bartlett is ripe when the skin color changes: Yellow Bartletts go from green to yellow, and Red Bartletts go from a dark to a brilliant red. 

Bosc: Great for eating and cooking, Bosc pears are sweeter and more flavorful earlier in the ripening process. They stay firm, so they will hold up to cooking. Available until April.

Comice: Though Comice pears are traditionally green, some new strains are completely red. They’re delicious and delicate with a fragile skin—slight bruising shouldn’t affect their taste. Available through February.  

Concorde: A mix of Comice and French Conference pears, Concordes are long, tapered and elegant with dense flesh that holds its shape during cooking. Available until December. 

Forelle: One of the smallest and most limited of commercially grown pears, Forelle pears are too delicate to cook. Their skins turn bright yellow with red freckles when ripe. Available until January.

Seckel: Possibly the only truly American variety of pear grown commercially, Seckel pears are also the smallest. With olive-green skin and a maroon blush, this pear has flesh that is firm enough for cooking. Available until February.

Starkrimson: As it ripens, the distinctive crimson color of its delicate skin goes from dark to bright. Floral and sweet, it is best enjoyed uncooked. Available through November.

Unlike many other fruits, pears need to be picked well before they ripen. Left on the tree to soften, they’ll taste grainy. At home, keep them at room temperature (refrigerate only to slow the ripening process). For pears that don’t typically change color, test for ripeness by gently pressing your thumb near the stem end, or the neck, not the body. The surface should just barely give when ripe. If you want softer flesh for a purée or smoothie, wait for the wider bottom half to become soft to the touch—the inside will actually be overripe.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Preparing Pears

A great way to enjoy pears is to poach them in a highly flavored liquid. The pear will pick up the essences of the other ingredients you use and, once cooked, will keep in the fridge for up to a week in the poaching liquid. The best pears for poaching are the smaller Seckel and Forelle and the larger Bosc and Concorde. Keeping on the stems makes them more elegant if you’re serving them whole.

Here’s the basic technique for poaching pears: Gently peel them with a vegetable peeler, giving each pear a squeeze of lemon juice as you go to avoid browning. Place the peeled pears in a saucepan that will hold them snugly without crowding them. Add your chosen spices and enough liquid to completely cover the pears—you’ll need about 4 cups of liquid for 6 to 8 pears. To protect them further, place a round of parchment paper over the tops of the pears during cooking. Bring the liquid to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until a knife easily goes into the flesh. Let cool. You can store the pears in their liquid or, if you’re serving them right away and want a simple sauce, remove the pears and any whole spices from the saucepan and vigorously boil down the liquid until it’s reduced to a syrup.

Experiment with any spices and flavors you like. Here are three combinations to try:

• Mulled Spice: Use 3 cups apple cider or juice, 1 cup water (more if needed), 2 cinnamon sticks, 8 black peppercorns and 1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and allspice.
• Purple Beauty: Use 3 cups port, red wine or cranberry juice, 1 cup water (more if needed), the peel of an orange or lemon, 2 cloves and 1 cinnamon stick.
• Golden Beauty: Use 3 cups fruity white wine, 1 cup water (more if needed), 1 cinnamon stick and 1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

For Your Best Health

Anti-inflammatory Foods

You’ve probably heard some foods described as “pro-inflammatory”—they increase levels of unwanted and unhealthy inflammation within the body. A landmark study just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, one that included 210,000 Americans, has found that a diet high in such foods has been linked to an increased risk for our number one killer: cardiovascular disease, or CVD. Inflammation lays the groundwork for high blood fats and deposits on artery walls, clogging those arteries and setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes. 

Turns out that people who ate a more pro-inflammatory diet—lots of red, processed and organ meats; refined carbohydrates, including sugars; and sweetened drinks—had a 38% higher risk of CVD compared with people who ate an anti-inflammatory diet. The findings held true for men and women, including people who were at a normal weight.  

Eating more anti-inflammatory foods can be a winning strategy to help prevent CVD. Reviewing this study and other recent studies, an editorial panel writing in the same issue of the journal outlined top foods to put on your menu: green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, cabbage, watercress, romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, arugula and endive; yellow vegetables such as carrots, pumpkin and yellow peppers; tomatoes and other fruits like blueberries, pomegranates, oranges, cherries, strawberries, apples and pears; whole grains, including wheat, oat, rye, buckwheat and millet; walnuts; extra virgin olive oil; fatty fish; and coffee, tea and wine, all rich in antioxidants.

Fitness Flash

Hand Workouts

Do you take your hands for granted? Think of all they do—cooking included!—and show them a little TLC. Exercises from Keck Medicine at the University of Southern California can help with stiffness and pain, too. Here are two to get you started: 

Hold a soft ball in one palm, squeezing as hard as you can without causing pain. Hold 3-5 seconds, then release and switch hands. Work up to 10-12 reps with each hand. Repeat every other or every third day. 

Make a gentle fist with each hand, wrapping your thumb across your other fingers. Hold up to one minute, then release and open your fingers, spreading them as wide as you can. Repeat 3-5 times with each hand. 

If these exercises cause discomfort or if you have chronic hand pain, check in with your doctor for an evaluation.

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Roasted Squash and Sage Risotto Recipe, Spotlight on Squash, The Power of Soy and Exercise and Depression

As fall’s chill takes hold, it’s time for stick-to-your-ribs meals and taking advantage of farmers’ markets bursting with the seasonal bounty of winter squash. This issue of The Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter has everything you need to cook up a storm…

There are a few tricks of the trade I want to share so you’ll avoid common risotto speed bumps. The first concerns the rice. A short-grain rice is a must for getting the texture just right—the longer jasmine or basmati styles just don’t give off enough starch. Most risotto recipes designed for the American kitchen call for arborio, a great choice. But Italians, who are understandably very particular about the rice they use, prefer Carnaroli rice because it keeps its shape better—it’s harder to overcook, making your risotto more foolproof as well as light and creamy. Now, just to make things more interesting, over in Venice, the favorite is Vialone Nano, grown only in the province of Verona. It, too, stays firm while creating a light and creamy dish. So, it’s a matter of preference. Gustiamo.com sells both kinds if you’d like to do your own taste test! Whichever rice you choose, do not rinse it—you want its starch intact.

This tip is simple but essential: The cooking liquid, usually broth, must be kept hot in a second pot on the stove so that the temperature of the risotto stays consistent as you ladle in the liquid. And now for something I find is really helpful, though it’s not traditional—I prefer to use a small metal spatula with a straight, blunt edge to stir the risotto because it makes better contact with the pan than a spoon. 

For this recipe in particular, roasting rather than boiling the squash adds extra depth without adding any extra cooking time. The Healthy Kitchen Nugget below has everything you need to know about the prep.

If you want to watch the doyenne of Italian cooking, Lidia Bastianich, making risotto before you begin, she has a video master class with Fortunato Nicotra, her executive chef at Felidia in New York. It features great techniques and an exotic beet risotto recipe.

Roasted Squash and Sage Risotto

• Roasted Squash and Sage Risotto

  Risotto is a time-honored classic from Milan, in northern Italy, where the culinary emphasis is on dairy, unlike the tomato-based dishes of the south. It’s labor-intensive because you must slowly add liquid to the rice and stir constantly to coax it to creamy perfection. Risotto is an impressive dish for entertaining, but you want to have the technique down first. While you don’t want to make your first risotto when company’s coming, it can be mastered quickly, and once you know the basics, you can start to experiment with different ingredients—shrimp, wild mushrooms, peas and leaks…risotto is infinitely customizable.

  Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 pound squash, such as Hubbard or kabocha 
  • 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
  • 3 large fresh sage leaves, finely minced 
  • 1 leek, trimmed, cleaned and thinly sliced crosswise 
  • 5 to 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock, homemade or low-sodium canned 
  • 1-1/2 cups rice, such as Carnaroli, Vialone Nano or arborio
  • 1 cup dry white wine, warmed
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
  • 5 ounces baby spinach, rinsed and patted dry with paper towel
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

  Directions

  Step 1

  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel, seed and cut the squash into 1″ cubes to make 2 cups (if your yield is higher, roast them all and save the overflow to toss in a salad the next day). Place 2 tablespoons of the olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet, add the squash and sage and toss to coat. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender, flipping them with your metal spatula at the halfway point. 

  Step 2

  Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy sauté pan over medium-low heat and add the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the leeks and sauté them until soft, but don’t let them color. While they’re cooking, heat the stock in a saucepan. Once the leeks are soft, immediately add the rice to the sauté pan and stir to thoroughly coat with the oil. Cook until the rice is slightly translucent, about 7 to 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium, add the wine and nutmeg, and stir until the liquid has nearly evaporated. Ladle a cup of the hot stock into the rice mixture and stir attentively. When the liquid has mostly been absorbed, stir in another cup of hot stock. Repeat until the rice is nearly al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano, the roasted squash and the spinach. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the squash is warmed through and the spinach is wilted. If the risotto seems a bit dry, add a little more stock. Season to taste—the risotto might taste salty enough from the cheese, but add a few twists from your pepper grinder. Top with more grated cheese and serve immediately.

  Yields 4 main course or 6 side dish servings.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Ode to Squash

Pumpkin might steal the spotlight for holiday pies, but winter squashes get the glory for sweet side dishes without the need for sugar. Many varieties can be as satisfying as sweet potatoes, plus they have all the wonderful nutrients of orange veggies, like vitamin A, with fewer calories. They have great taste on their own but will also benefit from spices and herbs you like. Here are some of the best:

Acorn
The yellow flesh of this small round, ribbed squash is more savory than sweet. Look for mostly green skin—too much orange means it’s past its prime. 

Butternut
This cream-colored squash with a rounded bottom and long neck has sweet orange flesh. 

Delicata
Oval in shape with light yellow and green stripes, this squash has yellow flesh and a mild flavor. 

Hubbard
With its gnarly, pale blue-green skin and large size, you might overlook this variety, but its orange flesh is rich and sweet. (There’s also a Hubbard variety that’s small and orange.)

Kabocha
Available in dark green or red, kabocha is among the sweetest of squashes—a great change of pace from pumpkin in desserts. 

Spaghetti
Milder and lighter in color (both the rind and the flesh) than other types, this squash separates into thin spaghetti-like strands when raked with a fork after roasting, making it the perfect sub for pasta. 

Sweet Dumpling 
This one’s close in size to acorn squash but has a much sweeter taste, plus the skin is thin enough to eat. 

Regardless of variety, a squash should feel firm and be free of soft spots and bruises. Most will keep up to a month or two in a cool, dry location.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Easy Prep Squash

For a quick hack, I love buying precut squash chunks because most varieties have thick skin that can be difficult to deal with. But I don’t want you to be deterred from buying whole squash at a farmers’ market or even growing your own. Here’s a great and easy prep. 

Use a sharp paring knife (dull knives are a real danger in the kitchen) to make a 1/8″ deep cut around the circumference of the squash in the right direction to later halve it, and then pierce it all over just as you would a sweet potato. Place it on 5 or 6 sheets of paper towel and microwave it—3 minutes for a small squash, 5 minutes for a large one. This won’t cook it, but it will make it easier to cut. Use oven mitts to remove the squash from the microwave, and let it cool for a few minutes before proceeding. 

If you need cubes for a recipe, use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin at this point, but if you’re ultimately making a purée or soup, leave on the skin for roasting—it will come off very easily afterward. 

Now use a sturdy kitchen knife to go through the cut line you made earlier to separate it into halves. With a soup or grapefruit spoon, scoop out all the strings and seeds and proceed with your recipe. Note: When roasting squash halves, always place the cut side down.

Bonus hack: Turn squash seeds into a fast snack! Rinse them off, use paper towels to absorb the excess water, spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle with your favorite herbs or spices, and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until brown and crispy.

For Your Best Health

The Power of Soy

One of the most-studied foods is soy, and research shows that it belongs on the menu whether you’re following a plant-based plan or simply want a nutritious meat alternative to include in your diet. Whole soybeans, including edamame, and foods made from soy, such as tofu, miso, tempeh and natto, are rich in nutrients called isoflavones. A study published in March 2020 in the journal Circulation found that people who ate at least one weekly serving of tofu or another isoflavone-rich food had up to an 18% lower risk of developing heart disease compared with 12% for those who ate these foods less than once a month. Other research has found that it can help you stay vital as you age and, according to a report by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, eating soy may help prevent cancer, including breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men—you can read more details here. 

Though soy is the richest source of isoflavones, they’re also in alfalfa, chickpeas, beans and pistachios, so make these foods part of an overall healthy diet.

Fitness Flash

Physical Activity and Depression

We’ve all heard about the feel-good chemicals called endorphins that kick in during exercise, but the effects of working out could go even deeper. An international team of researchers writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry looked at dozens of studies on the link between physical activity and depression and found that people with higher activity levels had lower levels of depression than people who are fairly sedentary—this connection held true for men and women, young and old. We don’t know the full explanation, but it’s due at least in part to the fact that exercise reduces physical risk factors, like inflammation, and increases protective factors like self-esteem. Until we learn whether there’s a magic amount of exercise needed, aim for the 30 minutes a day on most days of the week suggested by leading health organizations.

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