recipe: blue cheese and endive cups

I am so very partial to recipes with only a few ingredients. It can be wildly hard to stock our fridge with fresh ingredients during the week, so when I want to throw something together, it's usually based on four or five items I can find around our apartment.

For this recipe, I picked up some lovely endive and red peppers at the grocery store, added blue cheese and pine nuts we always keep in the kitchen, and drizzled them with my favorite Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and a bit of sea salt. Easy as pie (actually, a lot easier -- pie is not that easy at all!) and totally delicious.

I think I may be a little bit in denial about the seasons changing this year -- I'm still totally stuck on summer fruits and veggies, and don't see it changing any time soon. It's hard to get excited about winter squash and potatoes in October when you know there's nothing else coming along for five more months! So I'm sticking with these late-season picks for a bit longer, and savoring these fall colors and flavors.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

12 medium-sized Belgian endive leaves (about 2 heads)

1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 red pepper, chopped into 1/4" cubes

Salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine blue cheese, pepper pieces, pine nuts, and salt, toss to combine. Spoon into endive leaves by the heaping tablespoonful and top with balsamic vinegar. Serve.

Makes 12 pieces.