My friend Irene got me some organic pears from the tree in her garden. They were not the typical pears that are used to make poached pears in the Netherlands (stoofpeertjes), which turn red when you cook them. But they are not soft enough to eat raw either. And so I decided to use them to prepare an Italian recipe for poached pears, in a lemon syrup with lemon zest. The traditional recipe calls for more wine and more sugar, to be able to submerge the pears when you poach them. This will of course dilute the flavor of the pears and lemon. This is why I prepared the recipe sous vide instead, so you can use only a fraction of the amount of wine and sugar, and let the flavors of the pears and lemon shine. Sous vide also makes it easier to give the pears a tender yet firm texture. If you want to prepare the recipe the traditional way, add as white wine as needed to barely submerge the pears, and add sugar accordingly (50 grams more sugar for each 60 ml more wine). You could use any type of pears for this, and may have to adjust the cooking time for a softer or harder variety.

You could serve the pears with the syrup and strips of lemon zest like I did, or you could serve it with a slice of pound cake and/or vanilla ice cream for a richer dessert.

Ingredients

For 2-4 servings; you could easily double or triple or quadruple the recipe if needed

• 300 grams (.66 lb) peeled and cored pears (about 450 grams/1 lb gross weight before cleaning)
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) white wine
• zest and juice of 1 untreated lemon (60 ml or 1/4 cup juice)

Instructions

Use an untreated lemon (unwaxed) and wash it before using. Use a potato peeler to remove the zest in large pieces. An important detail is to remove the white pith from the lemon peels with a very sharp pairing knife. This is a bit of chore, but worth it, as the pith is quite bitter. Slice the lemon zest into narrow strips after removing as much as possible of the white pith.

Juice the lemon after removing the zest.

Unlike what I did, it is better to start with the lemon before peeling the pears, as you can use some of the lemon juice to prevent the peeled pears from turning brown. Peel and core the pears, and slice them in wedges or chunks, depending on how you’d like to serve them. You could even leave them whole if you have an instrument to core the pears. Place the prepared pears in a bowl, combine with the lemon juice, and stir gently to cover them with juice to prevent the pears from turning brown.

Pour the white wine into a saucepan, and add the sugar and lemon zest.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to about half to burn off the alcohol.

Turn off the heat, add the lemon juice…

…and the pears.

If you own a chamber vacuum sealer, allow the pears and liquid to cool completely and then chill in the refrigerator before vacuum sealing. If you do not own a chamber vacuum sealer, there is no need to cool the pears. Just place them in a ziploc bag and use the water displacement method to close the ziploc bag with as little air as possible.

Cook sous vide for 1 hour at 85C/185F.

After sous vide cooking, you can chill the pears and store them in the refrigerator in the bag for about a week. You can serve the pears chilled, at room temperature, or warm. To serve them warm, serve them directly after cooking them, or reheat them for about 15 minutes at 85C/185F before serving. (There is not really a need to use the sous vide to reheat. Just heat enough water in a pot to be able to submerge the bag with the pears until it almost boils, then turn off the heat, add the bag, and wait for 15 minutes.)

To make the syrup, pour the liquid from the bag into a saucepan (without the pears), bring to a boil, and simmer until it has the thickness you want. Chill the syrup first if you are serving the pears cold or at room temperature. In that case, make sure to remember that the syrup will thicken (a lot) as it cools, so do not reduce it by too much or you’ll end up with a sticky and though kind of candy.

Serve the pears with some syrup and lemon zest on top.

Wine pairing

The classic Italian combination would be to pair this with Moscato d’Asti. Also very nice is a sweet German Riesling, Spätlese or Auslese or perhaps even Beerenauslese. The sweetness of these wines can vary quite a bit. Some explanation about that in this article. We had it with an Spätlese from Mosel with 7% alcohol, and that was the perfect sweetness.