Random Recipes 11: Rocket Parmesan & Pear Salad (sadly without the parmesan!)

December's Random Recipe Challenge - hosted by the ever ingenious Dom at Belleau Kitchen was to make a recipe from a cook book that you rarely use, then give it away to charity, (The book, not the cooking!) which was a lovely idea, and a welcome antidote to all the mince pie and Christmas cake type posts flying around. Not that they aren't delicious and lovely too, of course, but sometimes it's possible to get a bit Christmassed out. And of course, charity shops are always on the look out for donations, many with stock appeals at this time of year, so it's a win win situation!

My book was World Cuisine Italy (1) which I think may have come from a newspaper at some point in the past, but is a fairly substantial book that had languished unused and unloved on my cookbook shelf.

I asked my sister, the lovely Auntie L to choose me a random recipe, and she picked Rocket, Parmesan and Pear salad, or Insalata di Rucola, Parmigiano e Pera if we're going to be Italian about it.

Since I'm still non-dairy, it immediately lost one of it's three key ingredients, and became Rocket and Pear Salad, which was thankfully still peppery, sweet, and tangy with a dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

So yet again, not what I was supposed to make, but lovely all the same. Don't be scared of adding pears to your winter salads - they are fantastic - I am a convert!