Pere al Vino RossoPears Poached in Red Wine

Shape the pears with stems intact and prevent browning

• 1 Wash 2 pears (200–230 g each) in cold water, support each with your hand without breaking its stem, and peel lengthwise from the stem base downward using a paring knife or peeler.
• 2 Trim about 5 mm horizontally off the base of each peeled pear so it stands on a plate.
• 3 Peel 1 strip of zest, 2 cm wide × 5 cm long, from a Japanese-grown unwaxed lemon, taking only the colored surface without white pith.
• 4 Put 15 ml lemon juice in a small dish and use a brush or fingers to coat the entire pear surfaces and cut bases.
• 5 Lightly press 4 black peppercorns with the flat of a knife to crack their skins, and break 1 cinnamon stick in half by hand.

Prepare the spiced red wine liquid

• 1 Put 600 ml full-bodied dry red wine and 120 g granulated sugar in a deep, heavy saucepan (18–20 cm diameter) just large enough to hold the 2 pears lying on their sides.
• 2 Add the broken cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, 4 crushed black peppercorns and 1 strip of lemon zest.
• 3 Set over medium heat, stir from the bottom with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar, and lower the heat when fine bubbles begin forming at the sides.
• 4 Keep heating on low for 5 minutes to drive off the alcoholic smell.

Poach very gently without boiling

• 1 Gently lower the 2 pears sideways into the liquid, positioning them so the stems do not touch the pan rim.
• 2 Spoon liquid several times over the exposed surfaces. Cut baking paper into a circle matching the pan’s inner diameter, make a 1 cm hole in its center and place it directly on the pears as a paper lid.
• 3 Reduce to very low heat and poach for 40 minutes, keeping the surface only occasionally trembling (85–90°C, without boiling). Poaching means gently cooking submerged in liquid.
• 4 Whenever strings of tiny bubbles start rising from the edges, lower the heat further or remove the pan from the heat for about 5 seconds to restore the temperature.
• 5 Every 15 minutes, gently turn the pears with cooking chopsticks and a spoon, exchanging upper and lower surfaces for even color.

Cool immersed to color the pears to the core

• 1 Remove the pan from the heat with the paper lid still in place and leave at room temperature for 2 hours to cool completely.
• 2 Once the initial heat has dissipated, refrigerate the whole pan and soak for at least another 3 hours.

Reduce the liquid to a coating syrup

• 1 MeanwhileWhile reducing, put 100 ml cream in a bowl over ice water and whisk without sugar for 3–4 minutes to medium-soft peaks; refrigerate until plating.
• 2 Gently lift the 2 pears from the liquid with a spoon and cooking chopsticks and stand them stem-up on a tray.
• 3 Strain the remaining liquid (about 550–600 ml) through a fine sieve to remove cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and lemon zest, and return it to the same 18–20 cm saucepan.
• 4 Reduce over medium heat for 30–45 minutes, skimming surface foam with a spoon 2–3 times, until about 150 ml remains and it reaches nappé consistency, coating the back of a wooden spoon without running off.
• 5 Remove from the heat at nappé consistency.

Glaze the pears and serve with cream

• 1 Set the pan base in a bowl of cold water and cool the syrup to about 40°C (body-warm) for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula.
• 2 Brush or spoon syrup all over the pears on the tray 3–4 times to give them shine.
• 3 Place 1 pear upright, stem upward, in the center of each of 2 flat plates.
• 4 Slowly pour the remaining syrup over the pear bodies from above and spread it into a thin pool on the plates.
• 5 Divide the chilled medium-soft whipped cream (panna) into 2 portions; use 2 spoons to shape quenelles and place 1 alongside the pear on each plate.