Anjou Pears Poached in Red Wine
Let’s celebrate Autumn and October’s grape harvest with this elegant, sensual dessert made especially to capture the beauty and simplicity of nature.
This beautiful dolce is made with sweet Anjou pears that simmer slowly in a red wine syrup infused with thyme, star anise, vanilla, cloves and cinnamon. When cooked to perfection, the pears turn a glistening ruby-red from the sweet and spicy syrup and the texture is smooth and velvety…..bellissima!!
Here is what they looked like after simmering in the sweet syrup for 30 minutes. 
Slice a 1/2 pear vertically and fan out on serving plate.. Spoon the thick luscious syrup around the pear and then topped with whip cream or ice cream…
see full recipe below.. enjoy!
Celebrate life everyday…La bella vita…Kathleen Barbato…3 Italian Sisters ♥
- 6-8 pears firm but tender
- 1-1//2 bottles of red wine ( I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
- 1 -1/4 cups sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, split and cut into 3 pieces
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- Peel each pear and leave whole or slice pear in half with stem intact.
- Pour wine into a saucepan large enough to hold all the pears. Add sugar,spices and thyme.
- Heat poaching liquid and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the pears and simmer for 20-30 minutes covered, until the pears are tender when poked gently with a fork or knife.
- Turn pears every 5-10 minutes so they are evenly colored.
- When pears are tender, remove them to a glass platter.
- Boil the poaching liquid until it becomes syrupy and coats the back of a spoon
- Turn off heat and let the syrup cool a little and then pour over pears and refrigerate
- The pears can be made up to 2 days ahead.
- Serve pears whole or slice on diagonal and fan out . serve with vanilla ice cream or whip cream.
