Recipe courtesy of The Italian Home Cook by Silvia Colloca, Macmillan Publishers, RRP $39.99
I am pretty confident that most mammas in Italy have a trusted recipe featuring red wine and pears. Here the match is undeniably appealing – the perfume from the spiced wine mingles with the softness of the pears, which are immersed in a fluffy, ephemerally light batter. This is an impressive dessert when served with some whipped cream and the reduced poaching syrup drizzled on top, or a formidable tea cake, best accompanied by a shot of grappa.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 100 g caster sugar
- 75 ml olive oil
- 170 g self-raising flour, sifted
- 55 g (1⁄2 cup) almond meal
- cinnamon sugar, for dusting (see Notes)
POACHED PEARS
- 3 william pears, peeled, cut in half lengthways and cored
- 500 ml (2 cups) red wine
- 50 g soft brown sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthways and seeds scraped
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
NOTES
To make your own cinnamon sugar, combine 1 tablespoon of icing sugar with 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and mix well.
You can remove the vanilla bean and reduce the remaining poaching liquid for 15–20 minutes or until syrupy. For a decadent dessert, serve the syrup alongside slices of the cake and whipped cream. Or you can go full-on Italian and serve the cooled cake with a shot of espresso or grappa – or both!
Method
- Start by making the poached pears. Place the pear halves snugly in a small saucepan. Add the wine, brown sugar, vanilla bean and seeds and spices and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid of baking paper cut to fit and cook for 45–50 minutes or until the pear is soft. Allow the pear to cool in the poaching liquid.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a 22 cm round springform cake tin or a 40 cm × 30 cm rectangular baking dish with baking paper.
- Whisk the eggs and caster sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the olive oil, flour and almond meal and mix well.
- Remove the pear from the poaching liquid and set aside. Pour 100 ml of the poaching liquid into the flour mixture and gently mix to create a loose batter. Pour the cake batter into the tin, then arrange the pear halves on top, some cut-side up and some cut-side down. Bake for 35–40 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin. Dust with cinnamon sugar to serve.
