End Your Heavy Meal With Something Sweet

Perfect Pairings 

Bill and Karen Garlough

As Published in the Naperville Sun, Beacon News, Courier News & Herald News

With the holidays approaching, we begin to think of gatherings with family and friends and special meals to celebrate the occasion.  While the Thanksgiving dinner is special, it also can be an over indulgent occasion.  We decided to focus on a light, sweet ending to this classic meal.  As pumpkin pie is dense, we kicked around other options, including pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin crème brule.  We liked the idea of pumpkin crème brule paired with a French Sauterne dessert wine, but thought it is complicated to make and a little heavy to finish off a big meal.  So, we settled on a pear fruit tart and an Italian Moscato dessert wine, to offer a light, sweet ending to this holiday feast.

 Wine Facts

Dessert wines are prized as they are produced in smaller quantities and are more expensive to make.    They are served chilled and sipped in smaller glasses containing 2 ounces of indulgent heaven (six 2 oz. portions per 375 ml bottle).  They are produced throughout the world, including wines from Sauternes, Barsac, Alsace and Anjou-Saumur in France, the Auslese and Eiswein (Ice) wines of Germany and Austria, late harvest wines from California and New York state, Ice wines of Canada, Australia’s “Stickies” dessert wines and Hungary’s great dessert wine Tokay Aszu.  Dessert wines can vary in weight and sweetness level from light to ultra sweet wines that coat your taste buds like liquid honey.

 Throughout the world, there are a variety of ways to produce sweet dessert wines, from picking the grapes late (late harvest wines) to allowing a fungal rot to form (botrytis) to allowing the grapes to be frozen (ice wines) to adding scoops of raisins to increase sugar levels (Tokays). 

 The Asti region of northwest Italy is home to Moscato D’Asti.  This Italian dessert wine is generally a limited, small production wine made from premium grapes.  It is a low alcohol wine that is slightly fizzy, lightly sweet and fruity.  They are meant to be consumed after each harvest, so watch for the dates on the bottles.  As they are not as sweet as Sauternes, Ausleses and Ice Wines, they can be sipped from a regular sized wine glass.  Moscatos offer apricot, peach and pear notes.  A quality, fresh Moscato actually bursts with the smell of apricots when it is first opened.  These wines work well as an afternoon beverage or for a light dessert pairing.

 Food and Wine Pairing

A key rule to remember in a successful pairing is that the dessert wine should always be sweeter than the dessert.  If not, the dessert will actually over power the dessert wine.   

 With our goal of finishing a big Thanksgiving meal with a light dessert, it was important to pair this dish with a lighter, slightly sweeter dessert wine.  With the pear notes found in both the Moscato D’Asti wine and the pear tart, we found this pairing to work well and hope you enjoy this pairing.

 Recipe

This is the season where our entertainment turns to the gathering of friends and family in our homes.  We want to prepare quality food but simplicity is the key.  This is a very simple, rustic dessert recipe that takes about 1 ½ hours of cooking time but very little prep time.  It does require an ovenproof skillet or well seasoned cast-iron skillet.  The original recipe calls for homemade puff pastry.  I use frozen puff pastry sheets which is fast and the quality is not compromised.  This tart is a wonderful finish to a heavy Thanksgiving meal or perfect after-theatre dessert served with a lightly sweet Italian Moscatos.

Rustic Upside-Down Pear Tart

Serves 10

 5          Each    Ripe Pears

6          Tbsp    Unsalted Butter

½         Cup     Sugar

½         tsp       Cinnamon

1/8       tsp       Allspice

1          Each    Sheet of Frozen Puff Pastry

Wash pears, cut in half and remove stems and seeds.  In a 10 – 12” ovenproof or cast-iron skillet, heat butter over medium heat.  Stir in sugar – mixture will be a little pasty.  Arrange pears, cut side up in the skillet.  Mix together the cinnamon and allspice and sprinkle over the pears.  Cook the pears uncovered over very low heat, without stirring until the sugar forms a deep golden caramel – about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Cool pears in the skillet.

 Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place frozen sheet of puff pastry over the cooked pears, covering completely.  Tuck in any edges around the pears.  Bake in middle of the oven until pastry is golden brown, about 30 minutes.  When done, remove from oven and let sit for 3 – 5 minutes to let the syrup settle.

 Using a rimmed serving plate slightly larger than the skillet, invert the plate over the skillet.   Keeping the plate and skillet firmly pressed together, invert the tart onto the plate.  This is easier than it sounds!  Serve tart at room temperature or chilled with whipped cream. 

Bill’s Wine Picks (with suggested retails)

 Lighter, sweet Italian Moscato D’Astis :

Saracco                                                           $13

Michelle Chiarlo’s Nivole                              $14

Stefano Ceretto                                               $19

Medium sweet dessert wines:

Brillo Riella Moscato D’Asti                          $9

Santa Julia Tardio – Argentina                       $12

Very sweet dessert wines:

Chateau Doisy-Vedrines French Sauterne      $17

Kracher Auslese – German Late Harvest        $22

Chateau Suduirant - French Sauterne             $30