As the summer ends and the strawberries and raspberries disappear, we look forward to the arrival of pears in early October.
Although delicious raw – and in Italy often eaten with Parmesan or Pecorino – pears are equally good when cooked. With their firm texture, they retain their identity even when cooked for a long time. Their taste is intensified by slow cooking with wine and enhanced by other flavours such as almonds, honey, vanilla and lemon. The cake here is our way of combining the ingredients we love most with pears.
Comice is the variety we generally use as the pears have a sweet buttery taste, are smooth in texture and full of juice. It is best to buy pears when firm and to allow them to ripen in a warm place. A ripe pear will give slightly around the stem and just yield when pressed around the neck. Pears deteriorate very quickly.