Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 bottle red wine, ideally not sweet
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp. honey
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 2 inch piece of orange zest
- 3 whole cloves, crushed
- 3 whole black peppercorns, crushed
- 4 firm to ripe pears
- mint leaf to garnish, if desired
Mascarpone Filling
- 8 oz. tub mascarpone
- 3 tbsp. confectioners' sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions
- In a large saucepan, combine wine, sugar, honey, lemon juice, cinnamon, vanilla bean, orange zest, cloves, and peppercorns. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved.
- Slice off the bottom of each pear just enough it stands upright on its own and just enough of the top to be used as a cap later.
- Use an apple corer to remove the core of the pear. Discard the core.
- Peel the pears removing all of the skin.
- Once poaching liquid is at a simmer, gently place the pears in the pot standing rightside up.
- Turn pears over every 10 minutes, until soft. (approximately 30 minutes if pears aren’t ripe and at least for 20 minutes if they are).
- Once pears are poached, remove from liquid and let cool completely. Cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Strain poaching liquid through a fine strainer to remove seasoning ingredients and set liquid aside to cool.
- Allow mascarpone to come to room temperature.
- Fill a piping bag, or ziplock bag, with the mascarpone mixture.
- Once pears and poaching liquid is cool and you are ready to serve the pears, use a ladel to pour enoughpoaching liquid in a shallow bowl to cover the bottom, about ¼”.
- Gently place a pear in the center of the liquid.
- Pipe the mascarpone filling into the center of the pear filling it just slightly above the tope of the pear.
- Place the cut top over the mascarpone and serve.