Oven Roasted Pears With Blackberry Sauce Recipe

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel, core, and quarter the pears.

Melt the butter in a large casserole or baking dish (a 10-quart Dutch oven works well). Add the pears and cook over high heat for about ten minutes, stirring often, until they're evenly golden brown.

Remove the pears from the oven, transfer them to a bowl, and let them cool to room temperature.

For the blackberry sauce, wash and dry the blackberries (a salad spinner is handy here). Reserve 1 cup of the berries for garnish later.

Pour the blackberry purée into a bowl and set it aside.

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a full-size sheet pan with a Silpat mat, or use parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray. Have a large pastry bag fitted with a star tip ready.

Using a spatula, fill the pastry bag with the egg white mixture and pipe out small meringue kisses onto the lined baking sheet. To create a small point on top, gently push the star tip of the pastry bag into each dollop about 1 inch and then quickly pull it away.

Once all the meringues are piped, place the baking sheet in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. You're drying the meringues, not baking them; they're done when they feel hard to the touch.

Remove the meringues from the oven and let them cool completely to room temperature.

To plate, spoon several tablespoons of blackberry sauce into the center of a bowl. Arrange 3 or 4 pear quarters and several meringue kisses on top, then garnish with a few whole blackberries.