Pears and Chocolate cheesecake

Now that the snow is gone and rain has replaced it, I kind of miss all that white around. Bah! Such is life sometimes. I guess we appreciate things more once their are gone. Jut like for this cheesecake ... I wish we still has a bit left to eat in these gray days.

I believe it was about two weeks ago, when I saw Sciopina posting about her wanting to do a Pastiera (traditional Easter cheesecake from Napoli) but ending up making a pear and chocolate tart. I really wanted to do it ... but I am no so great fun of cakes with pastry on top. 

And so this cheesecake came to be. It is a fairly lighter cheesecake in the sense that it has less calories, much less eggs and  it tastes less fatty. We enjoyed a lot the way the bitter chocolate (with caramelized bean chips in it) goes with the light ricotta cheesecake, the (still) crunchy pear pieces and the spicy cookies. Much better than the other recipe I posted sometime ago. Sure that one is different, but we both preferred this one (despite I still used a very dark chocolate Elke does not fancy too much).

For the italians (or who else can find it), consider using the 85% chocolate Venchi here since it is dry and has a bit the taste cocoa beans (I did not use it since I had little left and wanted no to use it up).

(Leggi la ricetta --- Read the recipe)