4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

5 ripe pears (d’Anjou or Comice)–peeled, cored and cut into ½-inch pieces*

¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes

1 cup dry Champagne or sparkling wine

Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

Juice of 2 lemons (about ¼ cup)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled and at room temperature

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1. In a medium saucepan, bring the stock and pears to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook until the pears are tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in the red-pepper flakes and remove the saucepan from the heat.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, blend the pears and stock until smooth. Pass the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Stir in the Champagne, lemon zest and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Divide the soup among 4 shallow bowls and garnish with the blue cheese. Serve immediately.  (The original recipe also calls for garnishing with celery leaves, but we didn’t use those when we made it).

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*We used pears from the pear tree at Sweet Springs, and we have no idea what kind of pears they were, but we just know they were delicious.

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This recipe is from a Tasting Table email (which, by the way, you should sign up for).  They say the recipe is adapted from Dirk Flanigan, Henri, Chicago.