Pears

Pears are a summer fruit, so even though canned ones can be found all year, the time to seek out a memorable pear pie, pear cobbler, pear muffin, pear upside down cake, or pear and gorgonzola salad is late summer into fall. There’s no better place to be that time of year than the Applegate Valley of Southern Oregon, where Pennington Farms grows all kinds of fruit, most notably pears for pie, which Roadfood correspondents Maggie Rosenberg and Trevor Hagstrom wrote, “tastes like poached pears in buttery pastry.” Another admirable pear pie is that made at B Line in Tucson, for which the pears are hibiscus-poached. A completely different kind of pie is pizza pie, which Pinthouse Pizza of Round Rock, Texas, offers topped with blue cheese and pears, caramelized onions, prosciutto, basil, and honey. As for canned pears, one of the time-honored things cooks do with them is to make a pear salad. That’s a few pale yellow pear halves topped with mayonnaise and grated orange cheese.