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Pear and Red Wine Sundae for Two

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Image may contain Cream Dessert Food Sundae Fruit Pear Plant and Produce
Photograph by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Prop Styling by Adrian Ababovic, Food Styling by Mieko Takahashi

It’s That Simple is our series about recipes so easy, you can make them with your eyes closed. Think tiny ingredient lists, laid-back techniques, and results so delicious you’ll text home about them.

An ice cream sundae is a beautiful blank canvas, and anything in your pantry or fridge can become the add-ons that make it shine. While hot fudge and caramel sauce usually take center stage, might we suggest a new favorite drizzle? Red wine syrup. It can be made with any bottle of red vino you have on hand, leftovers included. When cooked down with sugar, allspice, and cloves, the mixture will reduce and mimic the warming flavors of mulled wine.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    25 minutes

  • Yield

    2 servings

Ingredients

1 cup red wine
¼ cup plus 2 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. ground allspice
¼ tsp. ground cloves
Kosher salt
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 pear, peeled, halved, cored
Vanilla ice cream (for serving)
Flaky sea salt (for serving; optional)

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Bring 1 cup red wine, ¼ cup sugar, ½ tsp. ground allspice, ¼ tsp. ground cloves, and a pinch of kosher salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-high and cook, stirring and scraping down sides of pan, until thickened and syrupy, 10–12 minutes. Remove wine syrup from heat.

    Step 2

    Melt 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter in a small nonstick skillet with a lid over medium heat. Add 1 pear, peeled, halved, cored, cut sides down, and cover pan. Cook pear until golden brown underneath and slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle all over with a pinch of kosher salt and remaining 2 tsp. sugar; turn to coat.

    Step 3

    Scoop some vanilla ice cream into bowls; top each with a pear half and generously drizzle wine syrup over. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired.

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