Cardamom and Tea

Poached Pears

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Conventional wisdom says that you should never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. But these mulled wine poached pears are so beautifully spiced, they don’t need a fancy bottle. They don’t even need a $10 bottle. Grab the most below-average red you can find! By the time they’re done poaching, you’ll have a deeply fragrant syrup that tastes far more luxurious than it has any right to.

Jump to the recipe to hit the ground running, or read on for some tips for success + ways to use these poached pears once you have them.

poached pears
poached pears

Tips for poached pear success

1. Simmer, don’t boil.

As soon as the liquid bubbles, ease the heat down. You want a very lazy simmer, not a rolling boil that turns your elegant pears into applesauce.

2. Choose the right ripeness.

Go for semi-ripe Bosc pears—they should feel firm but not rock-hard, and definitely not soft, and they should taste good raw. They will be perfect about 1-2 days after bringing them home rock-hard from the supermarket. Here is a guide to pear ripeness.

3. Don’t skip the mulled wine reduction.

Just remove the poached pears first, once they’ve reached your desired doneness. The reduction will make your whole house smell like Christmas, and you can use the resulting syrup in baked goods and snacks. Speaking of which…

poached pears with mascarpone
poached pears puff pastries
poached pear loaf cake
poached pears loaf cake

Ways to use poached pears

  • On puff pastry tartlets
  • Baked into a spiced chocolate pear cake
  • With a little ricotta, mulled wine syrup, and pistachio
  • Slice and toss into a spinach salad
  • On oatmeal
  • Sliced and served on a charcuterie board with blue cheese, prosciutto, and pecans
  • Serve a hot poached pear with a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of syrup, and cookie crumbles
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Poached Pears

poached pears
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  • Yield: 7 pears

Ingredients

  • 7 semi-ripe firm Bosc pears*
  • 1 bottle [750 ml] red wine**
  • 1 cup [200 g] sugar
  • 1 scraped vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 whole star anise pod (optional)
  • 5 cardamom pods (optional)

Instructions

  1. Use a zucchini corer or a small melon baller to drill into each pear from the bottom, scooping out the seeds and any stony bits. After coring, peel the pears.
  2. Place the pears in a small saucepan and add the wine, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, star anise, if using, and cardamom, if using. Bring to a simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, keeping a very close eye on it. As soon as bubbles begin to break the surface, gradually lower the heat to low to maintain a bare simmer. Do not let it boil or your pears will turn to mush; tiny bubbles should break to the surface around the pears, almost like effervescence.
  3. Simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Gently rotate the pears a couple times to make sure they’re cooking evenly. They are done once you can easily insert a paring knife into the pear while still feeling a little resistance.
  4. Transfer the pears with a slotted spoon to a container that snugly fits them.
  5. Bring the poaching liquid back to a simmer over medium-high heat. Let it reduce down to ⅓ to ½ its original volume (to 1¼ to 1½ cups [350 to 425 g]; it takes about 20 minutes, but varies a lot based on the width of your pan). Pour the liquid over the pears and refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes

*Semi-ripe firm pears are pears that have sat at room temperature for 1 to 2 days after bringing them home rock-hard from the supermarket. They shouldn’t have much give, but should be a little juicy when you cut into one.

** Do not shell out for an expensive bottle. It’s getting drowned in sugar and spices and will taste great with anything that’s not total vinegar.

Storage: Use any pears floating above the surface within the first day or 2, then keep the fully submerged pears for up to 5 days. Or slice in half, submerge in syrup, and freeze in a tightly sealed container. Pears can be kept this way for at least 3 months with no loss of quality.

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Psst… by the way, I love this recipe so much, I ended up including it in my cookbook, Piecemeal.

If you like this recipe as much as I do, you might like my book! It’s full of mix-and-match recipes and inspiration for fun and easy meals. There are recipes in it for pears with mascarpone and streusel, tartlets, and loaf cake that all use these poached pears as their base.

Minestrone (with any vegetables)

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So you’ve got a fridge of half-forgotten vegetables, and no idea what to make for dinner? Minestrone to the rescue! This recipe doesn’t ask for perfection—it just asks what you’ve got in the fridge. A lonely half-a-zucchini? Toss it in. That bag of spinach you meant to add to omelettes all week (but ended up eating cereal instead)? Perfect. This minestrone is less of a recipe and more of a formula.

Jump to the recipe if you’re ready to go, or read on for lists of vegetables, a list of ingredients you can substitute, and some minspiration.

minestrone
minestrone

Veggies you can toss into this minestrone

You can truly use just about any vegetable you’d like, so don’t feel tethered to this list. That said, these veggies play particularly well in minestrone.

How to add vegetables: This is a true one-pot recipe—the pasta, veggies, and everything simmer together. But different ingredients have different cook times, so to keep everything from turning to mush, it’s important to group veggies into two categories: slow-cooking and quick-cooking. Start with the slow-cooking ones, then toss in the quick-cooking ones a minute or two before everything else is ready. And be sure to time it so the pasta finishes alongside the vegetables.

Don’t worry if this sounds like a lot to remember—the recipe takes you through it step-by-step.

Slow-cooking produce (7 to 10 minutes—add first)

Green bean segments
sliced bell pepper
mini okra
chopped thick Swiss chard stems
thinly sliced fennel
½ in [13 mm] diced winter squash, sweet potatoes, or parsnips
chopped kale or collards
½ in [13 mm] sliced potatoes
thinly sliced mushrooms

Quick-cooking produce (1 to 2 minutes—add last)

raw or grilled corn kernels
½ in [13 mm] diced zucchini or summer squash
chopped
swiss chard leaves
small cauliflower or broccoli florets
fresh spinach
peas
frozen corn, peas, or lima beans

Minestrone combinations I love

In the summer, I like Swiss chard, corn, and zucchini. In the fall and winter, I go with sweet potatoes, kale, and mushrooms. And I love peas, baby spinach, and potatoes for spring.

minestrone
minestrone

Ingredient substitutions

There are a few essential ingredients (onion, olive oil, garlic, lemon), but everything else is up in the air. If you go really far afield it might turn out to be less of a minestrone and more of a random vegetable soup. But if you do it thoughtfully, it’ll still be delicious!

  • Carrots and celery: If you don’t have carrots and celery on hand, you can play it by ear, depending on your other ingredients. They are usually the backbone of a soup, but you can easily leave these out if the other vegetables you’re adding carry a lot of aromatic flavor. For instance, if you’re adding fennel and bell peppers, you’ve probably got enough aromatic flavor there.
  • Vegetable stock: Any stock will work here, as long as it goes with your other flavors.
  • Red pepper flakes: You can substitute another dried hot pepper blend or omit entirely if you don’t want spice.
  • Diced tomatoes: If you’re making minestrone in the heart of tomato season, feel free to replace the can of diced tomatoes with an equal amount of chopped very ripe tomatoes (2 cups [400 g]).
  • Beans: Literally any beans will work here—just choose ones that go with the rest of your flavors.
  • Pasta: Use whatever little pasta you’ve got on hand. Or if you reeeally don’t feel like going to the grocery store, you could probably get away with using whatever pasta you have on hand. You just might need to break out the chopsticks if you go with something like spaghetti.
  • Parsley: Using something different from parsley will take this out of traditional minestrone territory, but cilantro, chives, or dill would also work here (as long as they go with your other ingredients, and as long as you like the flavor). You can also omit the parsley.
  • Parmesan is totally optional and can be omitted or replaced with another similar hard cheese (romano, asiago, etc.).
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Minestrone (with any vegetables)

minestrone
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Almost all of these ingredients can be substituted—see the notes above the recipe for more info.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 stalks of celery
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 quarts vegetable stock
  • 2 Tbsp minced or pressed garlic cloves
  • 1 pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 14½ oz [410 g] can of diced tomatoes
  • 15 oz [420 g] can of cannellini or kidney beans, drained (or another bean)
  • 1¼ cups [100 g] of orecchiette or another small pasta
  • Up to 4 cups of vegetables (e.g., sliced zucchini, swiss chard, and corn)
  • For garnish: lemon wedges, chopped parsley (optional), and Parmesan (optional)

Instructions

  1. Sauté the onion, carrots, and celery in olive oil over medium heat until they soften (about 8 minutes).
  2. Once they soften, add the stock, garlic, red pepper flakes, and diced tomatoes and bring to a boil.
  3. Once it comes to a boil, add the beans and pasta and turn the heat down to medium-low to maintain a simmer. Set a timer for the length of time your pasta is supposed to take to reach al dente.
  4. Add your favorite vegetables to your soup in stages, so that they all finish cooking at the same time as the pasta. Use my list of produce to get a sense of how long different vegetables take to simmer. Add slow-cooking veggies when there’s 7-10 minutes left on the pasta, and add quick-cooking vegetables when there’s 1 or 2 minutes left on the pasta.
  5. Finish it off with fresh lemon juice, a big handful of chopped parsley, and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan at the table.

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Psst… by the way, I wrote a whole cookbook of adaptable recipes like this one. It’s called A Dish for All Seasons!

Check it out for adaptable base recipes + ideas for seasonal (and evergreen!) variations. It includes this adaptable minestrone + 4 additional seasonal soups that I love (summery corn chowder, lentil with carrots and squash, avgolemono, and vidalia French onion).