Pears Poached in Red Wine

This is such a beautifully simple, yet unbelievably special desert.  And a great dinner party dish, it looks and tastes spectacular, and can be made in advance to be served at room temperature. So, so, so easy.

I absolutely love pears, the honey sweet flavor and soft grainy texture, they're like no other fruit.  For this recipe I like to use French d'Anjou pears, but Bartlett will do if the French d'Anjou are not available. 

There are so many recipe's for this dish, but the ingredients vary only between the spices, and the use or not of lemon. I like to make my poached pears using star anise, vanilla pod and cinnamon.

I've tried many different ways of making this dish, and this is my favorite.

Ingredients:

4 French d'Anjou Pears

2 cups Marsala wine

1/2 cup sugar

2 sticks cinnamon

1 Star Anise

1 Vanilla pod, split
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese

Put the red wine, sugar, and spices in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until the sugar dissolves.

Being careful to leave the stalk on, peel the pears, and remove the core.  Slice a disc off the base of each pear so they stand up.

Place the pears into the saucepan, and make sure they are completely covered with the wine. Simmer for 25 - 30 minutes, until the pears are cooked through.

Remove the pears from the heat and allow them to cool for a couple of hours, once cooled refrigerate in the liquid.

When ready to serve, remove the pears from the liquid, then reduce the liquid for about 20 minutes over a medium heat until it has a consistency of syrup.

Pipe the mascarpone cheese into the centre of each pear, and drizzle the reduced liquid over to serve.

  Lovely poached pears, absolutely delicious.

The secret to making these pears fabulous, is to make them a couple of days in advance, so they have time to absorb all the flavors from the wine and spices, this also intensifies a wonderful deep color into the pears.