Cassis & bay-baked pears with blackberries

Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Halve the pears – you don’t need to peel or core them – and put them, cut-side up, in a baking dish in which the fruit can sit quite snugly in a single layer. Pour the cassis and red wine over the pears, sprinkle with the sugar and tuck the bay leaves under the fruit.

Bake – spooning the juices over the pears from time to time – until the fruits are tender right through to the centre (how long this takes depends on the ripeness of the fruit; start checking after 20 mins, but it could take as long as 45 mins). It’s a good idea to turn the pears over a couple of times while they’re cooking so that they are cut-side down in the liquor for part of the cooking time.

By the time the fruit is cooked, the juice around it won’t be thick, but should be syrupy and sweet enough to serve as it is. If you don’t think it is, then remove the pears and bay leaves and reduce the juices by boiling them for a little while, leave to cool, then pour them back into the dish with the pears. Leave at room temperature and add the berries about 30 mins before you want to serve, spooning the juices over them, otherwise they get very soft sitting in the red wine syrup.