Prosciutto Wrapped Pears

Choose pears that are ripe but still firm - too soft and they'll fall apart. Bosc pears hold up best. Good quality prosciutto di Parma is essential - it should be sliced paper-thin. The Gorgonzola dolce is milder and creamier than aged Gorgonzola.

This antipasto draws on three ingredients whose pedigrees are among the longest in Italian food history. Pears have been cultivated in the Mediterranean for millennia: the ancient Chinese were growing them from around 2000 BCE, and by the 1st century AD the Roman author Pliny the Elder catalogued 41 different pear varieties then grown in Italy in his Natural History, noting the fruit's widespread use. European colonists carried pear varieties to North America in the 17th century, but the fruit's deepest roots remain in the warm orchards of the Italian peninsula. Prosciutto was being produced in the hills around Parma during the Etruscan period, and Cato the "Censor" documented the salt-cured hams of the region around 100 BCE; Prosciutto di Parma received its DOP designation in 1996. Balsamic vinegar from Modena has the most precisely dated origin story of the three: the earliest written record of aceto balsamico comes from 1046, when Holy Roman Emperor Henry III received a barrel of it as a gift while passing through northern Italy on his way to Rome for his coronation — making it a product already prized enough to present to an emperor over 900 years ago. True Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena is aged in a series of progressively smaller barrels made of different woods — oak, chestnut, cherry, mulberry, and juniper — for a minimum of 12 years; it carries DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) status. The combination of pear, prosciutto, and balsamic is a classic expression of the Italian autumn table, when pears hit peak ripeness and the sweet-salty contrast of cured meat and ripe fruit is at its most satisfying.