Wine-poached pears and burnt zabaglione with salted cashew biscotti

Serves 4 Desserts and puddings

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Method

For the biscotti wafers, preheat the oven to 180C/160C F/
Gas 4. Put the flour, baking powder and sugar in a processor and whizz to combine. Add the cold butter, pulse the mixture to a coarse crumb and tip into a bowl.

Grease a baking sheet. Mix the cashew nuts into the bowl, followed by the beaten egg. Using your hands, form into a disc and cut this in two, then roll each piece into a 16cm log. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet, leaving a space in between them, and flatten slightly to around 5cm wide. Bake for around 20 minutes until golden.

Leaving the oven on, transfer to a wire rack to cool for around 10 minutes. While still warm, slice diagonally on a board into pieces approx. 1cm wide. Increase the oven temperature to 190C/170C F/Gas 5. Put the slices back on the baking sheet and bake for around 5 minutes until just changing colour. Turn them over and cook for a further 5 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container until ready to use.

For the pears, cut a fine slice off the base of each pear so they stand up straight, then peel them. Pour the wine with 750ml cold water into a pan, add the pears and poach, simmering gently for 20-30 minutes until just tender when skewered. Lift the pears out into a dish. Remove 300ml of the cooking liquid and pour into a smaller pan. Pour the remaining liquid over the pears to cool down.

Meanwhile, boil the cooking liquid down to 150ml and leave to get cold – a quick way is to transfer to a small bowl and sit it in a basin of cold water. When ready to serve, use a handheld electric whisk to whisk the reduced, cold pear cooking liquid, the sugar and the yolks in a heatproof bowl the right size to sit over a pan of gently simmering water without the base touching the water. Put the bowl over the water and continue to whisk, taking care the cord doesn’t get near the heat source, until thick and the beaters leave a distinct pattern in the mixture.

Put the cold pears on sheets of kitchen paper to absorb any juices, then freeze the cooking liquid to use in another recipe. Create a pool of zabaglione sauce on 4 flat serving plates or use a large serving platter. Dip 2 pears per serving into the sabayon and blow-torch the mixture gently to give it a light tan colour.

Decorate the pear stalks with a little edible gold leaf and serve with the biscotti wafers.