Beet and Pear Purée (guest post)

We had some dear friends over the other night, and we made this. Well, I can't really take much credit. Missy made most of it. I just stirred it a little. Because this was mainly Missy's culinary effort, the recipe below is written largely by her.

Ingredients:
Beets, scrubbed (we used 4 huge ones)
Butter (a couple tablespoons)
Onion, chopped (we used 1 whole medium yellow onion, none of that 1/2 cup nonsense!)
Sugar (a couple teaspoons)
1/4 c. (or so) balsamic vinegar
Pears, cored and chopped (we used 3 and didn't peel them first)
Salt (to taste)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the beets in an oven-safe dish, and roast them in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes (until you can poke a fork in them). If the beets are huge (like ours were), cut them in half before roasting them, and roast them facedown in the dish. Allow the roasted beets to cool somewhat. While the beets are cooling, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, sugar, and balsamic vinegar. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the somewhat-cooled beets. After the onion mixture has cooked for a while, add the chopped beets & the pears to the simmering onion goodness. Let it simmer all together for about 10 or 15 minutes, reducing the vinegar/liquid and melding the flavors. Transport (by thirds) to the blendy thingy*--give it a few pulses to just chop everything, but try to keep it coarse-ish (you don't want to make beet PASTE). Return the coarse purée to the pan to keep warm. Oh, yeah--add salt to taste at the end of cook time.

*Right. Food processor. Blendy thingy is not a real term, is it? You could do this with an immersible blender or a regular blender if you don't have a blendy thingy. It'll be a bit more effort, but it'll work okay. We don't have a blendy thingy either, but Missy and her family brought theirs!

Comments:
YUM. This is definitely worthy of repeating. It would be an awesome side dish at Thanksgiving. Thanks, Missy!