“You two have just volunteered to cook dinner. Pears and sausage in oil, and a double portion for your new little brother…”
-The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
Thoughts:
The Lies of Locke Lamora bursts with lavish settings, appealing to the senses with descriptions of the sights and smells of bustling Camorr. Set in a fantastic world of alchemy and clockwork, it also contains accounts of glorious, glorious food. This dish is one of four in a given meal when young Locke is first welcomed into the fold by the Gentlemen Bastards.
This is a tasty, if unexpected, pairing. The pears pick up the spiciness of the sausage, holding a slight crisp bite in their skins. The sausages, on their own, are delicious. However, when taken with a bite of the pear, the textures and flavors complement one another very nicely. The addition of balsamic tones down the oil somewhat, and rounds out all of the flavors brilliantly.
I recommend it as an Autumnal dish, as the spices and roasting will warm both you and your kitchen.
Stay tuned for the other elements of this same meal: black bean salad in mustard-wine sauce, fried chicken dumplings in gingery orange sauce, and red peppers stuffed with almond paste and spinach.
Recipe for Sausages and Pears in Oil
Serves 4
Prep: 15 minutes Cooking: 15 minutes
Cook’s Notes: As I sadly don’t have an alchemical hearthstone, I’ve had to make do. As a result, the sausages and pears are first seared in oil, then roasted in the oven to finish them off.
Ingredients
- 6 spicy pre-cooked sausages (chorizo, linguica, or hot Italian are all good choices), split in half lengthwise
- 4 firm pears, quartered and cored
- 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for serving
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, plus more for serving
Awesome!
I tried this recently as one-half of a cooking challenge a good friend of mine are trying to accomplish, since we’re both enormous fans of the book. She’ll try the recipe eventually with Spanish chorizo, but I myself tried it with a spicy Italian sausage. It was a success, but both my friend and I agree that a good dusting of paprika on the pears would have made the dish extra-yummy, especially if using sausages with less grease and a milder flavor.
Looking forward to your ginger scald recipe!
Awesome, and I’m glad you liked it!
I, too, can’t wait until the ginger scald. It’s been tough to reconcile the description with something one would actually want to drink; I’ll probably end up making two versions in the end. But I HAVE the hot pokers, all ready to go! :D
As a frequent sufferer of colds, the ginger scald sounds like the cure-all I’ve been looking for. One glass should burn the cold right out of my throat, lungs and sinuses. As long as I don’t drink it in public, I’d be more than happy to give it a shot :D.
So I gave this a try, but made use of some tips from: http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.de/2008/10/roasted-sausages-pears-recipe.html
Marinating the pears in the vinegar really had a neat effect on their flavor. Also, as I’m currently living in Germany, the purity of sausages is a point of pride over here and makes getting the american idea of what a sausage is difficult. So I picked up a few Rindswurst, cut them in half, and rubbed my choice of seasonings on before searing them.
Anyway things must have worked out ok, because we didn’t send out for Chinese. Thanks for the tips!
Would it be possible to do this as more of a ‘help-yourself’ kind of dish, where everything’s put together in one big bowl and people just scoop out however much they want? I ask because I’m trying to figure a way to make this for work.
Oh yes, that’s a great idea. I’d suggest increasing the quantities, and chopping the sausages. The pears should be chopped smaller, too, but I’d be concerned that they might fall apart, so best to cut them up after cooking, probably.
Let me know how it goes over!
This also works very well with quinces, if you slice them and microwave the slices for a minute or so to parcook
Made this last night and it was delicious! An excellent recommendation for an autumn dish.