Pouched Pears with Honey Sauce

From Into the Sauce! the Buca di Beppo cookbook. So rich and wonderful! It takes, like 2 hours to do because of all the zesting and peeling and poaching that's involved, but you can do all of it ahead of time (and should, because the pears should be cold when served) and just warm up the honey sauce, spoon it over the pears and serve it.

6 Bosc pears
3 cups cold water
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 cups Honey Sauce (see below)

Peel and core the pears (a melon baller works well), leaving the stems intact. Place the cored pears in cold water and set aside. Mix 3 cups of water, the vanilla bean and the sugar in a saucepan large enough to hold all the pears. Heat the syrup over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the lemon juice. Drain the pears and add to the syrup. Cook over medium heat in covered pan, turning occasionally, until the pears are tender, about 30 minutes. Cool the pears in the syrup to room temperature, then refrigerate until cold. Remove the pears with slotted spoon and place each pear on an individual dessert plate. Spoon the Honey Sauce over the pears.


Honey Sauce

2 cups honey
Zest of 4 lemons
Zest of 4 oranges
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

In a saucepan, heat the honey to a simmer over low heat. Add the lemon and orange zest, ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Serve warm or refrigerate to use later. Prior to using the sauce, slowly reheat it to server warm. Makes 2 cups.