Equal Parts

To celebrate every New Year, Jeff and I like to cook an elaborate meal. We turn down party invitations, decide against any ideas of dining out, pull out our cookbooks, and write a menu. Over the years we’ve recreated favorite restaurant dishes, borrowed ideas from renowned chefs, purchased equipment, invented recipes, and tried new things and succeeded — from seared scallops and potato gnocchi to smoked salmon tartare and cider gougères. A fitting way to start a new year.

The course of this annual meal that has received the least of our attention, however, has been dessert. Either we have forgotten about it entirely or hastily picked up treats from our local Italian bakery. When we’ve remembered, the plan has always been to make red wine poached pears. Though in both instances we still lacked foresight; the recipe calls for the pears to be soaked overnight in a red wine-based syrup, but we didn’t start cooking until mid-afternoon on the day of the feast. The first year we celebrated our New Year’s dessert on January 3rd, and then next time shared them at a later dinner with Jeff’s parents.

The pears are so good, though, the perfect dessert to close out your holiday season, sweet but not heavy, fruity and in the direction of January’s retreat. Best served with vanilla gelato (or, accidentally, peach gelato, if your local Italian bakery happens to have a labeling issue). Whatever your timeline, allow the pears their process. They are absolutely worth waiting for.

RED WINE POACHED PEARS

Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin from four pears of your choice (we used Bartlett and Bosc). In a medium pot, mix together one bottle of red wine (something you would drink, we used a Merlot/Syrah blend from Trader Joe’s), four cups of sugar, the peel of one lemon, the peel of one orange, one cinnamon stick, one star anise, and two cloves. Add the pears to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer until the pears are very soft and cooked through, at least one hour. Remove the pears and set aside. Return the pot to a boil and cook on high until red wine mixture is reduced and syrapy, perhaps about twenty minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then remove the fruit peels and spices. Place the pears in a medium bowl. Pour all of the syrup over the pears. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve each pear with a scoop of vanilla gelato and a drizzle of the syrup.