Pears cooked in 'Nero d'Avola' served with whipped cream

 

Do you know how to cook pears in Sicilian red wine and serve them with soft delicious whipped cream? Ok... I will tell you! As Christmas is very close by now, here there is a lovely idea to make a dish with juicy fruits that can also count as a great dessert for one of our upcoming festivities: Christamas Eve, Christamas day, St. Stephen's day (which is boxing day), New Years Eve, Capodanno (New Year day) or Epiphany. See how many occasions we have? 

Infact to be honest... we often forget about fruits when we prepare big meals. We are usually (here in Italy at least) concentrated on the first dish (fresh pasta? baked pasta? lasagne?), the second one (pork? turkey? beef roll?) and the dessert (cake? pie? pudding?), so we tent to miss out the 'fruit course'.

But, if you like the idea, this recipe is elegant and easy at the same time, as you can cook the pears in wine the day before and whip the cream on the big day!!!

Ingredients & Preparation for 4 people: 4 pears cut in halves - 1/2 lt Nero d'Avola (Sicilian red wine) - 200 gr double cream - 200 gr caster sugar - 2 big pieces of lemon zest - cinnamon

1. Wash the pears under running water, cut them in halves and remove skin and inside.

2. Place them in a sauce pan on a medium heat with the red wine to cover them all, plus 100 gr caster sugar, the lemon zest and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

3. Let them cook like this for about 25 minutes, time is also related to the quality of the pears, if they are pretty ripe and soft (but not too much!) probably 15-20 minutes would do, but if they are hard better 30 minutes. You need to check them anyway from time to time!

4. In the meantime whip the cream with the remaining sugar until smooth and soft.

5. As soon as the pears are ready (try them with a fork to test how tender they are) take them out of the sauce pan and place them on a dish to cool down, while keep the sauce going on the heat to restrain a bit more. We are looking at a red wine syrup of some sort that will be poured onto the pears when served so it has to be more juicy than watery.

6. Once the sauce is ready place the pears on a serving tray and the whipped cream in a bowl so that you can serve them separetely. Pour the Nero d'Avola syrup onto the pears and serve straight away.

If you want to try this recipe on a normal Sunday lunch and want to keep it low fat just serve them with plain white yogurth instead of the cream. It will be as delicious as the first one!

Enjoy :-)))

"Caldofreddo": a MUST when you go to Trapani or nearby

Do you know what "caldofreddo" is? Caldofreddo is a very particular ice cream prepared in the western part of Sicily. Literally in Italian these are two separate adjectives that mean hot (caldo) and cold (freddo), so it would be just like saying "hotcold".

But what is exactly that we are talking about?

It is basically a huge bowl of ice-cream made in layers and served in a traditional Sicilian terracotta bowl that we call "lemmo". You can normally choose two ice cream flavors, I often go with hazelnut and coffee, or hazelnut  and pistaches.

They first put a flavor, than a thin layer of victoria sponge or a soft big cookie that we call savoiardo (similar to the one we use to make tiramisù, but usually made artisanally), then the second flavor, and on top whipped cream covered in melted dark chocolate and a topping of hazelnuts in pieces.

Needless to say that you start getting high as soon as you taste the whole thing! So here it is my suggestion: if you happen to visit the province of Trapani, you definetely want to go inside a Gelateria and ask for a caldofreddo. The best one I had was many years ago in San Vito Lo Capo (pic above), a lovely village with an amazing beach and seaside, but I know for sure they do it also in Trapani and Erice.


So... hurry up folks: Sicily is waiting for you... the sun, the sea, the beach, and... the caldofreddo!!! :-)))