Pear Crisp with Blackberry-Sage Sauce

It’s nearly fall here in New England and as the land starts to cool and settle after an active, busy summer, many of us are shifting ever so slightly away from light and airy summer foods like salads and raw veggies to warmer, cooked dishes like soups and fruit crisps. Every turn of the year brings opportunities to experiment with locally available foods and find unexpected ways to combine the season’s herbs into everyday life. With those two principles in mind, I pondered some fresh sage and late-summer blackberries and wondered how to combine them into something delicious. It turns out that in the right proportions, the sweet-tartness of blackberry is a perfect match with sage’s fragrant astringency and warmth.

After a quick search on the Internet, I found that the sage-blackberry combination is already an actual thing so I can’t take credit for this particularly brilliant melding of flavors. When blended into a balanced, luscious sauce, the blackberries and sage dance together without upstaging each other, and combined with pear, well…have mercy! For a quick dessert, sage-blackberry sauce is divine simply drizzled over fresh, ripe pears.

Or for a slightly more involved treat, throw the pears in the oven as a fruit crisp. I usually don’t even use a recipe when making fruit crisps: just chop up some fruit, toss in something that will add a crunch, bake until done. And I really don’t see a need to add sugar to perfectly ripe and already sweet fruit. The “crisp” can come from anything from oats to ground almonds or other nuts sprinkled over the top of the fruit. This version uses cashews, coconut, and date syrup for the grain-free crowd and adds just a light crunch to the delicious pear crisp.