Pears Melba

4 Firm ripe pears, preferably

-Bosc 1/2 c Sugar

1/2 c Water

1 Strip lemon peel

1 ts Vanilla

1/2 c Sweet wine (Marsala or

-Madeira) 1/2 c Dry wine

1 pt Ice cream (i.e. vanilla,

-toasted almond, pear) 1 pt Raspberries, pureed with 2

-tablespoons sugar Peel, core and halve pears. Combine sugar, water, lemon peel, vanilla and wines and bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes. Add pears and slowly poach in the sauce until tender and infused with sauce. Turn pears occasionally with tongs. Remove from sauce. Reduce sauce until very syrupy. Cool. Place a spoonful of sauce in the bottom of an individual serving bowl. Place a 2-ounce scoop of ice cream on the sauce and top with the poached pear. Drizzle with the pureed raspberries and serve. Serves 8. PER SERVING: 225 calories, 2 g protein, 36 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat (4 g saturated), 22 mg cholesterol, 29 mg sodium, 4 g fiber. Heidy Haughy Cusik writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, 11/25/91. Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; September 30 1993.