Here’s a photo of the papa’s pear tree. It brings back memories when the organic way to eat fruit was picking from your tree! Speaking of pears….

I love poached pears! A simple, elegant dessert and EASY to prepare. Adding your favorite spices enhance the flavors. Always use a good red wine when you are poaching the pears. An important rule of thumb is “always cook with wine that you will drink and serve your guests!

6 Peeled, Cored and Sliced Pears (Bosc or Anjou)
2 cups of red wine
1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1 lemon, juiced and lemon zest of the lemon (don’t waste anything my mother and nanna would say)
Dark chocolate shavings (sinful)
Marscapone, Burrata crème fraiche or scoop of vanilla ice cream (use your favorite)

Preparation:
Combine all ingredients, except pears, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a low and add the pears. Simmer pears for 20 minutes and turn them occassionally to marry all of the flavors. Poke the pears at twenty minutes (until they are tender). Remove pears and let them cool. Boil wine sauce until the liquid has been reduced by half. Pour sauce over pears and serve with a tsp. of either Marscapone, Burrata crème fraiche or ice cream. Drizzle dark chocolate shavings and serve! Perfect with a dessert wine.

I’ve used oranges + cinnamon as another option with orange liqueur!

I also like to serve my poached pears with the 7-egg sponge cake – you can find the recipe in my archives (11/18/09)!

a presto,

maria !