Add your sparkling wine, cinnamon, cardamom, sugar, lemon juice and salt to a small pan and bring to a boil. Make sure to use a pan that will allow the liquid to just about cover the pears, you want them submerged while they poach. While the liquid is coming up to a boil you can go ahead and peel your pears.

Once the liquid’s boiled, reduce the heat down to a simmer and gently add in your pears. Let them poach for 10 – 15 minutes or until tender. You can poke them with a small paring knife and it should easy slide in with minimal resistance. If your’re using larger pears add 5-10 minutes to the total cooking, just test to make sure they’re tender.

Once your pears are done cooking carefully remove them and set aside while you reduce the poaching liquid to a syrup. Bring it up to a boil and let it reduce by about two thirds.

To serve these I sliced them in half and scooped out the seeds and core, arranged them in a dish and topped with the syrup. Next I added some chopped pistachios and a generous drizzle of heavy cream. Ice cream would work really well here too. That’s it. Eat up!