Machengo Stuffed Pears with Prosciutto

Illness takes its toll in unexpected ways. There are the obvious things of course, depending on the specific illness. But what was a surprise for me after getting better from my surgery and getting home was the loss of muscle tone for one thing, along with weight loss. I am amazed at how quickly my muscle tone and strength deteriorated after a month in the hospital. And, despite my resolve to eat right and recuperate, loss of appetite along with a feeling of changed "taste buds" is a major issue. I have found that appetite is important not just as the desire to eat something and carry out that action. For cooking and meal preparation, appetite is necessary to propel you into seeing a recipe’s appeal enough to want to select the ingredients and go through the trouble of shopping, cooking it and then finally, doing justice to the effort expended. Visualization is the major part of the eating process.

Right now I find it much easier when I see something in the store that looks and sounds appealing and is already cooked and ready to eat. Instant gratification seems to work much better appetite-wise. Thank heavens for stores that have lovely deli case type displays –then all that is required is to heat up and dish it up, what you see is what you get – right away.

I did do a little cooking over the weekend. Our neighbors Paula and Tim gave me a gift of a box of Harry and David pears. The fruit is beautiful to look at and tastes great just as it is so requires no effort to enjoy. As it happened we have a recipe for using pears like this as an appetizer that one of us tore out of a magazine recently. I discovered it among all our loose recipes that remain unfiled until we try them and declare them worthy of going through that effort. Anyway this recipe called to me with just enough ingredients to be interesting, as a worthy way to use the pears and it sounded delicious and simple to make

The recipe calls for seckel pears which are miniature pears and while I am able to obtain them, the fact was I had pears already available to use. And, mostly the larger version is what is mostly available, so I adapted the recipe
For my use. The firmer pears such as I had, would seem to be easier for this use, rather than the yellow Bartlett, which seems to me too soft to work with. If you use the seckels they just need to be cut in half and cored as noted.
Machengo is a Spanish cheese that has a sort of a nutty, buttery flavor. My alternate choice would be gorgonzola which goes fabulous with pears but unfortunately melts much faster than the machengo, not allowing the pears time to roast quite as well I suspect. Oh well, I may have to try that next time. The prosciutto saltiness does contrast wonderfully with the cheese and the pears.

Pears with Machengo and Prosciutto
8 slices of thinly slice prosciutto
2 pears cut into quarters lengthwise if using regular size pears*
Machengo cheese- approx 2-4 oz.
Olive oil


Preheat oven to 350, scoop out cores of pears with a melon baller, leave stems intact
*If using seckel pears, cut in half and core

Brush cut sides with olive oil
Place a cube of cheese in core of each pear slice, wrap each with 1 – 1 ½” wide strip of prosciutto
Place pears, cut side up on baking sheet, keeping seam under pear,
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until cheese begins to melt. Serve warm




I made this as an appetizer to have with a small glass of reisling while we were sitting out in the patio on the warm summer afternoon. The main course was take-out pizza since I didn’t want to push myself too much and Steve had been away at a ball game all day long.