Vegetarian Recipe: Wine Poached Pears

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Every week on the Good Food Blog we celebrate Meatless Monday by sharing a vegetarian recipe from our archives.

Arthur Schwartz is a food writer, editor and cooking teacher.   His book is Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited.  H e first shared this recipe for Wine Poached Pears on April 19, 2008.

Keep reading for the full recipe…

Wine Poached Pears
Serves 6

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 1/2 cups sweet red Passover wine (such as Malaga or Concord)
  • 1 to 2-inch strips lemon zest (optional)
  • 6 firm, ripe Bosc pears

To make the wine syrup, in a 3-quart saucepan (or the size that holds your pears snuggly on their sides but not pressed together), combine the sugar, water, wine, and lemon zest.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring a few times to help dissolve the sugar.

Peel the pears, preferably with a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler, but leave the stems in tact.  There is no need to core the pears.

Place the peeled pears in the syrup.  The syrup will not entirely cover the pears.  Adjust the heat so the syrup simmers gently.  Cook the pears, uncovered, for 45 minutes.  Every ten minutes or so, turn the pears so they cook and color evenly.

Remove from the heat and let the pears cool in the syrup in the pan, again turning them every 10 minutes or so for at least 30 minutes.

Chill well before serving.  The pears are excellent as soon as they are chilled, but they will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for several weeks.  They will, in fact, improve with time, as they get more and more impregnated with the syrup.