Red Wine Poached Pears with Cardamom & Orange

Somewhat unbelievably (to me, at least), last week was the first time in my life that I’d ever tried wine-poached pears. I’m not exactly sure why that is, other than I might have — unfairly — categorized them as “boring.”

Well, I’ll just count this as one culinary lesson learned. These pears are the exact opposite of boring: they’re wonderfully flavorful, brilliantly jewel-toned (gorgeous against a white plate), and a really special yet easy dessert to make when winter is still hanging on and your market isn’t yet carrying spring produce.

For ease of eating, I halved and cored my pears before poaching — this way, no one has to navigate around the seeds and stem. I served the pear halves as the recipe suggested, with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, more of the poaching liquid drizzled over the plate, and crumbled almond biscotti sprinkled on top. It’s such a lovely play of textures: the firm pear, smooth creamy ice cream, spicy sweet sauce and crunchy biscotti crumbles…this is a dessert well worth repeating and anything but boring!

Oh, and a secondary perk: we’ve been drizzling leftover poaching liquid over vanilla ice cream just by itself, and it is so good!

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Adapted from Bon Appetit, March 1997

Ingredients

1 750-ml bottle dry red wine
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, stemmed and cored (I use Bosc pears, and core them with a melon baller.)

vanilla ice cream
1-2 almond biscotti, crumbled (I made these)
Orange peel strips (optional)

Directions

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat (sugar should dissolve.) Add the pear halves and continue to simmer, occasionally turning over the halves, until they are tender when pierced with a fork or knife, about 20-25 minutes.

Remove the pears to a plate with a slotted spoon. Turn up the heat and bring the red wine mixture to a boil, then continue boiling it to reduce the sauce to syrupy consistency (you’ll want to end up with about 1 cup’s worth.) At this point, if you’re making it ahead, you can store the poached pears in their poaching liquid until you’re ready to serve — just warm both a bit before serving.

Serve 2 pear halves to each plate, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some poaching liquid drizzled over, and some crumbled almond biscotti sprinkled on top. Garnish with strips of orange peel, if you like.

Serves 4.