I get a box of organic produce delivered to my doorstep once every two weeks from Door to Door Organics. Not quite a CSA but close and I really enjoy making dishes with what arrives in that box. This week it included spinach and pears and I love spinach with fruit and cheese components so it was time to raid the pantry and see what else I could conjure up for a dinner salad.
Spinach salad with pears and bacon was a no brainer. Though not my home cured version of bacon (sob), I had some good bacon in the freezer and even if I prefer my Maple Bourbon Bacon on an ongoing basis, I wasn’t going to pitch a perfectly good pound of pork. Bacon means some bacon fat so I decided to try combining components of my favorites for spinach; elements of a honey mustard dressing with those of a warm bacon dressing and I thought it was sounding good. It was late, I hadn’t had lunch so sometimes you never know…sounds good could just mean I was REALLY hungry! I was certainly putting together a lot of familiar components and heading in a very familiar direction. Should I officially christen this an Italian Spinach Salad?
I did combine olive oil with the bacon fat too…while not on a list for the healthiest of salad dressings, I thought that at least helped. I’m also using pine nuts, my very last precious cache of them from happier times. When I could afford them. Before their price started to rival gold. I hear it’s due to a shortage though I see plenty of them; they are just double the price I used to pay (and they were already a bit pricier than other nuts). I’m not anxious to pop $20 for a bag of them at my local Costco so I’m playing a waiting game though I read the other day it might be a long wait. Like forever. If you don’t have pine nuts and don’t want to take out a 2nd mortgage on your home, then toast some pecans or walnuts; that’s what I’ll be doing in the future too!
This was a simple salad with the freshest of ingredients and I’m excited to be dining outdoors tonight where my garden is in the throes of gloriousness. So I thought I would share some of that with you today. Wish you could join me!
Spinach and pears are combined with fresh mozzarella and pine nuts for a new take on an old classic.
Ingredients
- 4 cups Spinach, washed and dried
- 1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
- 8 oz. Fresh Mozzarella, diced
- 4 slices Bacon, diced
- 2 Pears, sliced
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 1/4 cup bacon drippings
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 4 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Champagne Vinegar
- 3 Tbsp Honey
- 1 tsp stone ground mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
- Put spinach leaves and red onion slices in a bowl.
- Mix vinegars, honey, mustard, salt, and pepper together. Add bacon drippings and oil and whisk until blended.
- Toss the ingredients in the bowl with some dressing to lightly cover. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Plate each serving and arrange pears on top.
- Add mozzarella, bacon and pine nuts to each serving.
- Drizzle with additional dressing.
Notes
This makes additional dressing than what will be required for 4 servings. Serve with any fresh salad.

























{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Spinach Salad with Mozzarella, Pears, Pine Nuts and a Warm Honey, Mustard and Bacon Dressing! take one word out of that sentence and it just wouldn’t work would it. Perfection of balance here. GREG
Thank you sir; appreciate the very kind comment!
Stumbled this is screaming my name!
Ahhh…. lovely garden photos!!!!!!! I always enjoy seeing what friends have in their yards. :)
If we lived closer, I’d offer to go 50/50 on a box of pine nuts with you. Because seriously, they’re $$$$$$$$$$$$.
Isn’t dining in the garden THE BEST THING EVER?????
[K]
Thanks Kim…my days of what you and Barry do are over but I do love the flowers and herbs. My outside dining in the evening has been totally ruined by having to have a tree cut down. The leaves were all gone but it’s now evident that the trunk was in the path of the sun and now my entire covered patio is in full sunlight from 4p to 6p (luckily the neighbor behind us is up high and blocks sun from 6p until sunset). I’m installing a matchstick blind on the edge of the porch today…it’s only been a couple of days but I can’t wait to eat dinner out there again tonight!
Warm bacon dressing is how I got hooked on eating spinach salads when I was a teenager, although I never considered adding pear to the mix.
I’m quite jealous of your garden. We do get some flowers that are heat-tolerant but I get tired of them rather quick!
Me too Megan…used to be my absolute favorite salad. I never liked cooked spinach and was so pleasantly surprised at the notion of eating it fresh…with a great dressing!
Most of mine have to be drought tolerant. I only water the grass and annuals. If they can’t stand the heat/dry…they are booted out of the garden!
Lovely photos of your back garden Barb. This salad looks so good. It kind of reminds me of my mother’s wilted salad, yum. I’m like you, I prefer to wait out those high prices. I had to do it a couple of years ago when vanilla extract was sky high but it’s finally back down and I am a happy baker once again.
Like salmon I fear they will never come back down. I have about an eighth of a cup left. Need to save them for something stupendous don’t I?
Love the looks of this salad! All the ingredients make me want to try it soon!
Please do try it and make sure you let me know if you liked it as much as I did, OK?
How refreshing and healthy the salad look! The pictures of lovely flowers making it more delightful.
Thanks so much for your kind comments!
The only time I east spinach is when it’s raw and in a salad. I’d eat an awful lot of it if this salad were close to me now! Looks wonderful Barb and with the pine nuts in it you could call it *High End Italian Spinach Salad*
Love all the colours in your garden. We have the iris’ growing wild on the country road along the Blueberry Marsh where I walk Max every day. Love them and while the blooms don’t last long, they certainly are beautiful in their deep purple.
Me too Paula…I never liked cooked spinach as a kid and was astounded the first time I had a spinach salad. Love them in all forms…but like you, can live without the cooked version.
The garden has just been a riot of color…considering I never stepped one foot (good or bad!) into it last year, I’m pleased that it’s not dead!
That’s a yummy looking salad … and your garden is heavenly… I’d love to sit outside and just take everything in …. gorgeous flowers, a peaceful fountain … what else could you want when you’re looking for some solitude and peace ??
I am out there a lot I must admit. I work from home and this time of year I am so glad I do. Coffee breaks? Outside. Lunch? That too. Dinner? Of course!
Sorry, the only thing I could focus on in this post was “bacon dressing”. The end. ;)
Woman after my own heart. Bacon it is Nelly!
BEAUTIFUL! This is just my kinda thing – bacon fat and all :D
Thanks Kris..kudos from my new foodie friend is a high compliment! :)
Your garden is lovely, but I am really taken with this salad. I get in such a rut with salads and can use all these wonderful ideas. The flavours here are wonderful and I love that you used a little bacon fat in the dressing. Yum!
I got out of my rut better when I opened my mind to fruits in salads and they’ve become my preference now. Maybe with the perfect summer tomato I would revise that plan…but those are so limited during the year and the other ones are so bad!
So jealous of your garden. It is gorgeous. Any meal is made better by that lovely scenery. Salad looks incredible. I had no idea pine nuts were that expensive. I’ll have to look to see what they cost around here.
This salad looks incredible. Yesterday, the pine nuts were $23 at our Costco!!!
They were $20 the other day and that is a bit lower than last time I checked a couple of months ago. I do love them and in truth…I’ll probably buy more but I will curtail their use a bit. Lived for years without them and now don’t know how I can live without them!
What a perfect summer salad!
Thanks so much…so perfect I now wish I had some spinach in my garden. And, well, a pear tree!
Love this salad!
This salad looks so delicious..and your garden is absolutely gorgeous!!
Thanks on both counts…as much passion as I have for preparing food; it’s shared with one for gardening. I love the hard work and the hard earned results.
Looks yummy! And I LOVE the flower pics – lovely!
Thanks Michele..though I would love a wide angle to get the entire swath of garden, I’m sure having fun with the up close and personal shots.
This salad looks so good and I can’t ever pass up a salad with fruit, bacon and pine nuts. Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks so much and neither can I…seems something like this is becoming my go to salad. Blame Nordstrom’s where I got started with pear, candied walnuts and bleu cheese and never looked back!
Not sure which I like more, the salad or your flowers!
Thank you! A 20 year labor of love, this year has been pretty amazing. The best of both worlds is eating a fresh salad while sitting outdoors in the garden.
That dressing sounds wonderful. It reminds me a bit of a warm potato salad dressing. I love the idea of putting it with spinach, cheese, nuts and fruit.
I absolutely love making salad dressings…a bit of this, a touch of that. My friends ask why they’re never on the blog. Well, because I never write down what went in them! This time I did. :)
Great salad! I always like a little fresh fruit in a salad. Just makes it so much more interesting.
I have started to lean more towards fruit in my salad than vegetables. Even in summer, Colorado never delivers the kind of tomatoes I still dream of from my Midwestern childhood; fruit delivers more than a hothouse tomato any day!
I’m so glad Door-to-Door Organics worked out for you Barb! I think it is like a CSA-in-a-box. It offers the ease most people appreciate as well as the end result without driving somewhere for a weekly pick up.
The salad sounds perfect. Our weather this summer has been so manic, I feel I’m ping ponging between usual summer fare and something more substancial. This salad with a warm dressing sounds perfect for today. Your garden looks beautiful!
It’s been great Toni and they’ve been great. Mentioned I never got a delivery I had ordered from Groupon even before you featured them on your site…no problem, sent that to my door last week. I love getting some things I might not normally buy and building a recipe around them. Except that green pepper last week. I have my limits. My neighbor has the green pepper! :)
That splendid salad is so appetizing! What a symphony of flavors.
Lovely flowers.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love the combination of fruit and bacon in salads. I think I could do bacon with everything LOL! Just adore the flavors of this salad! Lovely flower shots!
Thanks Meeta and me too…the bacon thing! I’m just starting to use my bigger lens for outdoor photos; I got my camera in December, so it’s been the first outdoor season for me to use it. I just might have a lot of garden shots. :)