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Of bold wine, tender pears and vanilla ice cream

Malbec-Poached Pears with Ice Cream and Toasted Almonds

45 minutes Plus

Argentinian malbecs are affordable, full-bodied, richly colored red wines with a lush, plump fruitiness. And all of that makes them ideal for poaching fruit. We tried different varieties of pears and liked Bosc best because their texture held up nicely with simmering. Make sure to choose fruits are ripe, yet firm; they should not yield to pressure. A full teaspoon of salt in the poaching liquid may seem like a lot, but we found that it made the fruit, wine and spice flavors taste full and complex.

Ingredients
  • 2

    cups malbec wine

  • 1

    2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into ¼-inch slices and smashed

Directions
  1. 01
    In a nonreactive 12-inch skillet over medium, combine the wine, ginger, star anise, sugar and salt. Using a paring knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean halves and add to the wine, then drop in the pod halves. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Arrange the pear quarters in an even layer in the liquid, cut side down. Return to a simmer, cover and cook, adjusting the heat to maintain a simmer and turning the pears three or four times, until a knife inserted into a pear meets no resistance, 30 to 35 minutes.
Malbec-Poached Pears with Ice Cream and Toasted Almonds

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