The weather here in Ramatuelle can be pretty perfect all summer long. One learns to understand that there are a few exceptions to paradise: 1) the rainstorm around mid-August 2) the East wind and 3) the Mistral. Locals say the mistral winds occur for one day, three days or a week. Well, a huge mistral wind came in late July across the Ramatuelle plain, and all of our pears were knocked off our new pear tree. Since they were still pretty hard, there was no question of eating them for breakfast, so we decided to poach them for a dessert.
We always have some rosé wine lingering in the fridge from the night before so we used it instead of the normal red wine to brighten them up a bit. The result was pretty nice, and our lavender ice cream was a perfect accent to this new classic.
Serving Size: 6
Ingredients:
2 cups rosé wine
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, seeded
2 teaspoons cardamom, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
6-8 baby pears, peeled, sliced in half and cored
Directions:
In a large pot, bring the first 6 ingredients to a boil. Reduce to medium-low heat and add the pears. Turning regularly, poach the pears until tender but not mushy, about 20-30 minutes.
Remove pears and chill. Strain the wine sauce and return to the same pan over medium-high heat. Reduce the sauce by half and chill. Serve the with ice cream (we served it over lavender ice cream) and the wine sauce drizzled on top.