4 Large Firm Pears

500ml Red Wine

175g Sugar, to taste

1 Split Vanilla Pod

Juice of a Lemon

So glamorous, so delicious and so simple to make – just perfect to serve at a dinner party, as it can be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. The other good thing is that it is best made with rock hard pears and cheap red wine

  1. Add wine, sugar and vanilla to a steep sided pan and bring to a simmer. It needs to be a deep pan to submerge the pears (which will float, but just keep batting them under).
  2. Meanwhile peel the pears, rolling each one in lemon juice to prevent discolouring, then place in the pan and simmer for around 30 minutes, keeping the pears under the liquid until they’re ruby coloured. At this point you can either cool and keep in the fridge (still immersed in the wine), or cool and then remove pears and make a sauce from the wine.
  3. Mix around a teaspoon of cornflour with a little cooled wine mixture and gradually add it back into the wine in the saucepan. Simmer until it thickens to a pouring consistency.
  4. Serve pears in this sauce with a little crème fraîche or whipped cream.

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