Pears in Piedmontese wine with chocolate
It's not always easy to trace where a recipe originally comes from, but red wine-poached pears are definitely a dessert from Piedmont, just like Baci di Dama, and contains two wonderful ingredients: Martin Sec pears and locally produced red wine.
Let's find out how to make this delicious dessert with chocolate, which evokes the authentic flavors of the past!
Which red wine should you choose when making pears in wine?
Before delving into the recipe for pears in wine with chocolate, we need to explain what wine to use. We recommend poaching the pears in Barolo, the king of Piedmontese wine with its garnet-red colour and strong flavor, which will give the dish that little bit extra. That said, those who prefer sparkling wine with a lighter after-taste can use Lambrusco instead.
Recipe for oven-cooked pears in wine with chocolate
The recipe for Piedmontese pears in wine is perfect for when you have guests for dinner and want to offer something a little different from the typical tart/cake for dessert. It takes less than an hour to make and with simple, high-quality ingredients like Venchi’s Extra-Dark Chocolate, it’s a guaranteed winner!
Difficulty: easy
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
4 Martin Sec pears
1⁄2 litre of red wine
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
50 g sugar
100 g dark chocolate
Preparation
First, remove the core from the pears using a small knife or a special coring tool, making sure you don’t remove the stalk.
Fill a pan with the wine and sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved, then add the pears and blanch them for a few minutes.
Drain the pears and place them in an oven dish, positioning them upright (it may help if you cut a small piece out at the bottom of the pears).
Cover the pears in the the baking dish with foil and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, melt the dark chocolate over a bain-marie.
Add the cinnamon stick and cloves to the pan containing the wine and sugar. Once it has cooled, the resulting syrup will be ready to pour over the pears.
When the pears are cooked, transfer them to a serving dish and top with a couple tablespoons of the cooking liquid, then pour in the dark chocolate you melted in the bain-marie.
If the sauce is too runny when cooked, try removing the pears and putting the pan on the stove for a few minutes over a high flame to thicken it. Oven-cooked pears in red wine taste better when served at room temperature: the sauce will release more flavour and the dark chocolate will be thicker and creamier!
Recipe for pan-cooked pears in wine with chocolate
Poached pears in red wine with chocolate can also be made quickly and easily in a frying pan. For a version that’s perfect year-round, we recommend replacing the cloves and cinnamon with the juice of half an orange, which will make the dish extra-fresh.
The process is very simple: simply heat the red wine in a pan for a few minutes, adding a little sugar—two tablespoons will be enough—and the orange juice, then add the pears and cook with the lid on over a medium heat for around twenty minutes.
To check whether the pears are cooked, you can use a toothpick: if the pears are ready, it will slide right in, otherwise you need to cook them longer.
If the sauce dries out too quickly, add a ladle of water to thin out the mixture.
Once cooked, transfer the pears to a serving dish and top with dark chocolate melted over a bain-marie. You can even add a pinch of chilli pepper for a surprising touch!