Warm Carmelized Pears with Spiced Zabaglione/ Nourishing Laughter

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I cannot cook or eat zabaglione without thinking of Roberto Begnini.  Remember him? He’s the Italian director and actor best known for the 1997 hit movie, Life is Beautiful. When going up to accept his Academy Award for best foreign film, he leaped onto the back of Steven Spielberg’s chair and nearly fell over the top of his head. He very nearly walked up to the stage on the backs of the audience members. He then went on to proclaim in his broken English and with frenetic but endearing earnestness–his enormous love and gratitude. I laugh through tears whenever I watch that. I just love how comfortable he is to display a “hailstorm of love” as he said. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out it on Youtube.

So, why the connection to Zabaglione?  In another of Begnini’s movies, Johnny Stecchino, he depicts a quirky school bus driver. Dante is sweet, but a bit simple. After an accident, he finds himself defrauding the government with a false insurance claim. While he is waiting for the insurance adjuster to arrive at his house for a meeting about his injuries, he burns his hand on his espresso pot. Since he is rapidly shaking his hand up and down as he opens the door, he claims to the adjuster that he woke up from the accident unable to control his hand.  Because of this, he cannot write, eat properly, or even work. All he can do is make zabaglione.

You’ll understand the humor in this when you make this delicious egg custard for yourself.  Zabaglione is a very popular Italian dessert. It shows up in cookbooks from the 15th century. It always uses a sweet white wine like Vin Santo or Marsala combined with sugar and egg yolks, and cooked up over a double boiler until thick and frothy.  Zabaglione is delicious with just those three ingredients although it is often is served with fruit or cookies. It’s a great dessert to whip up on short notice because you likely have those ingredients in your kitchen at any given time. It’s typically served warm, so it makes for a great winter dessert. And, being that we’re still  in the midst of winter, I thought I’d warm it up further with a little spice and poached Bosc pears.

It does take a bit of muscle to whip this up, but the result is delicious. This dessert is light but satisfying–like a good laugh.
We all know that laughter eases stress and nourishes our souls. We should do much more of that. So, when you’re finished making this, serve yourself some and sit down to watch Johnny Stecchino. Then, you too will giggle a little every time you eat zabaglione.

Carmelized Pears with Spiced Zabaglione

This light but satisfying dessert can be whipped up fairly easily but is delicious and comforting. 

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Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 2 star anise pods
• 1/2 cup sweet marsala wine
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 lemon zest strips
• 6 Bosc Pears, halved with stems intact
• 3/4 cup sweet Marsala wine
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, stir together the cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the Marsala, honey, butter, lemon zest and half of the mixed spices and heat just until the butter melts.  Remove from the heat.  Add the star anise pods and let sit.  Reserve the remaining spices  for the zagbaglione.  
• Place the pears, hollow side down, in a baking dish pour the Marsala mixture over them.  Bake them, basting occasionally with the liquid and turning them over halfway through cooking, until easily pierced with a knife.  This is important: they must be like butter.  You really don’t want them to be the slightest bit crunchy.  Let stand until cool, about 30 minutes. 
• About fifteen minutes before serving, bring a saucepan half full of water to a gentle simmer.  Using a whisk, beat together the egg yolks, sugar and water in a large heatproof bowl.  Whisk constantly until the mixture is thick, frothy, and begins to hold soft peaks and no liquid remains at the bottom of the bowl, about 10 minutes.  Do not be tempted to walk away at this time.  You must continuously stir or you will end up with scrambled eggs.  Fold the reserved spices into the zabaglione. 
• To serve, place two pear halves in each individual bowl.  Spoon the zabaglione onto the pears.  Serve immediately.