• 5 oz / 140 g sugar
• ¼ pt / 140 ml dry red wine
• 6 firm pears
• 2 navel oranges
• 1 small lemon
• butter

Make a syrup of the sugar and wine. Peel, halve and core the pears. Scrub the oranges and lemon and slice them. Put the fruit in the syrup, and simmer until the pears are tender. Transfer the fruit to a serving dish, and reduce the syrup slightly, stirring in a nut of butter to give the sauce a nice gloss. Pour it over the fruit and serve warm. Vanilla ice cream, crème fraîche or a warm sabayon are good accompaniments, but the fruit is also very good on its own. You will notice how good the oranges are cooked this way. I have sometimes just cooked oranges in the red wine syrup.