Most weekends, I wander over to one of the farmers markets near me for a loaf of bread, a few heads of garlic, maybe some leafy greens and whatever fruit is in season. I’m averaging an apple a day these days, but have also been adding pears into the mix.

A good pear is hard to beat. I like them fresh, out of hand, but roasting brings out a softer, sweeter side. Lightly dressed and roasted alongside kale and sausages, as in this recipe, they make a wonderful autumnal meal.

I think of the pear as apple’s more romantic, slightly mercurial cousin. It’s not always as easily sweet or crisp; its color is more muted than the average apple’s. But its romantic shape – a graceful or bulbous gooseneck ending in a pert stem, like an upturned nose, a plump and curvaceous bottom, heavy and steady and often blushed – is bested only by its complex taste.

“They are a more aristocratic fruit than apples,” writes Henry David Thoreau in “Wild Fruits.” “Yet they have neither the beauty nor the fragrance of apples. Their excellence is in their flavor,” he writes, comparing apples to the reflection of the sun and pears to the night sky. “They whisper of the happy stars under whose influence they have grown and matured. This is not the case with all of them, but with only the more perfect specimens. It suggests a sympathy with the law by which the light of the stars bursts its way thro’ the air and space to us.”

That subtle magic reminds me of all the artists who have used pears as their muse. The cubist “Still Life with Pears” by Maurice de Vlaminck gives a trumpet-like bowl of green pears a dashing, masculine energy. Paul Cézanne’s postimpressionist “Three Pears” portrays plump fruit in golden-green. The deliberate paint strokes allow the fruit to catch the light. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Poires” also features a trio of the tree fruits, but they’re cradled in a white cloth and their green skin is accented generously in fleshy, feminine rouge.

I was thinking of all this when I decided to put some of the pears I carried home from the market to work for dinner. I had kale in the refrigerator, and sausages, too. To complement the pear’s sweetness, I decided to massage olive oil, whole-grain mustard and vinegar into the kale. Any type of sausages will work here, but I prefer fennel-accented sweet Italian-style.

Once, I made a balsamic glaze out of balsamic vinegar and honey and drizzled that on top. Another time I simply shaved parmesan shards over each serving. Pick out ripe but still firm pears – I like Comice, Bartlett, Bosc and Asian – and then play with the balance of sweet and sour until it tastes just right to you.

Roasted Sausages, Kale and Pears

4 servings. Active time: 15 minutes. Total time: 45 minutes.

For this speedy sheet-pan meal, whole-grain mustard and white wine vinegar get massaged into chopped kale before it’s roasted beneath pears and sausages. Shave parmesan on top before serving for an extra hit of savoriness.

Storage note: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more the pan

3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 bunch (12 ounces) kale, preferably lacinato, thick stems removed and chopped

2 pears, any kind, (10 ounces total), firm or ripe, sliced

4 fresh sweet or spicy Italian-style sausages (1 pound total)

Freshly cracked black pepper

2 ounces parmesan cheese, shaved (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Grease a large, rimmed baking sheet with a little olive oil.

In a large bowl, stir together the olive oil, mustard and vinegar. Add the kale and massage the dressing into the leaves. Spread the kale in an even layer on the baking sheet. Scatter the pear slices over the kale and then lay the sausages on top.

Roast for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan, and return it to the oven to roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sausages are cooked through.

Serve family-style, topped with cracked black pepper and parmesan, if desired.

Nutritional Facts (per serving, based on 3/4 cup kale and pears, 1 sausage) | Calories: 461, Carbohydrates: 21 g, Cholesterol: 75 mg, Fat: 35 g, Fiber: 5 g, Protein: 20 g, Saturated Fat: 11 g, Sodium: 742 mg, Sugar: 10 g.

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