Ingredients:

2 Anjou pears, firm and just beginning to ripen, halved and cored

16 oz Red wine

4 to 5 Star anise pods

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 tsp Vanilla extract

4 oz Refined sugar

For the plate:

8 oz BelGioioso Vanilla Mascarpone

4 oz Rogue Creamery Brutal Blue, crumbled

1/2 cup Pistachios, freshly chopped

12 Fresh mint leaves, small tips

Instructions:

1. Build the poaching liquid

Combine the red wine, star anise, cinnamon sticks, vanilla extract, and sugar in a saucepan wide enough to hold the pears in a single layer. Bring to a bare simmer and stir until the sugar has fully dissolved.

2. Poach the pears

Lay the pear halves cut side down in the liquid. Simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until a knife slides into the shoulder with slight resistance. Firm fruit is the goal. An overcooked pear will not hold a scoop of mascarpone.

3. Cool in the liquid

Remove the pan from the heat and let the pears cool to room temperature while still submerged. This is where the color transfer happens. Lifting them out early leaves the fruit pale.

4. Reduce the syrup

Lift out the cooled pears. Return the liquid to the heat and reduce until it visibly coats the back of a spoon. Pull the whole spices. It will thicken further as it cools, so stop just short of where you want it.

5. Plate

Set a cooled pear half on each plate. Place one generous scoop of vanilla mascarpone into the cored hollow.

6. Finish

Crumble the Brutal Blue over the mascarpone in large pieces so the veining shows. Scatter the chopped pistachios, spoon the reduction across the plate, and garnish with three small mint tips laid low. Serve at once.

Notes:

Cheese temperature. Pull the Brutal Blue from refrigeration 45 minutes before service. Cold blue crumbles chalky and mutes both the aroma and the veining.

Crumble size. Break the blue by hand into large irregular pieces. Fine crumbles disappear into the white of the mascarpone and the plate loses its contrast.

Portioning. Four ounces of blue across four plates is one ounce per serving, which is assertive for a dessert. Reduce to two and a half ounces for a general audience.

Mascarpone handling. Keep it on ice and scoop at the last possible moment with a chilled scoop. It will slump under warm lights.

Build window. Do not plate more than five minutes ahead. The syrup thins against the cold mascarpone and runs to the plate edge.

Non alcoholic variation. Substitute pomegranate juice for the wine with a splash of aged balsamic and the same spice load. You get the same color, the same syrup, and a build a customer can shop start to finish at our counters.

Wine. Uncle Giuseppe’s does not retail wine. Reference it as a cooking ingredient only. It is never merchandised, never displayed, and never built into the case.