Pears in Marsala and rosemary with dark chocolate shortbread

Prep time: 30 minutes, plus chilling time Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 8

A very simple dish – and one of my favourites – which is elevated by the dark chocolate shortbread. If you don’t have Marsala you could use medium or sweet sherry.

INGREDIENTS

For the shortbread

– 225g butter, at room

temperature

– 125g caster sugar

– 1 tsp vanilla paste – 180g plain flour

– 80g cornflour

– 30g cocoa powder – ¼ tsp baking powder – icing sugar, for

dusting (optional)

For the pears

– 8 just-ripe pears – juice of 1 lemon – 250ml sweet Marsala – 3 sprigs of rosemary,

plus a few to serve – 40g soft light-brown

sugar

– crème fraîche,

to serve

METHOD

For the shortbread, cream together the butter and sugar but don’t take it too far – it doesn’t have to be fluffy, just mixed together. Add the vanilla.

Mix in the dry ingredients, plus ¼ tsp salt, and whizz until the mixture comes together, though it won’t form a ball. Divide the mixture in half and roll each half into a log 9cm long and 6cm across. Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour.

Half an hour before you want to bake the shortbread, heat the oven to 170C/160C fan/ gas mark 3½.

Cut the logs into slices 4mm thick and put them on a baking sheet or sheets, spaced 3cm apart. Bake for 30 minutes. The surfaces will still be quite soft in the centre but they will firm up as they cool. Once cool, dust with icing sugar if you like. Keep in an airtight container until you want to serve them (they’ll last for a few weeks).

For the pears, heat the oven to 170C/160C fan/gas mark 3½. Halve each fruit and squeeze some of the lemon juice over the flesh to stop it discolouring. Put them into a gratin or baking dish where they can lie snugly in a single layer (if there’s too much space around them the juices will evaporate and possibly burn).

In a saucepan, heat the rest of the lemon juice with the Marsala, rosemary and 50ml water. Bring this to just under a boil, then pour it over the fruit. Scatter the sugar on top and bake until tender, 35-40 minutes depending on the ripeness of the pears, spooning the juices over the fruit every so often. By the end, the pears should be burnished. If you have used a gratin dish that can go to the table, leave them in that; if not put the pears in a serving bowl.

Tuck a few sprigs of fresh rosemary among the fruit. Serve at room temperature with the shortbread and some crème fraîche.