This picture is midway through the making of an upside-down red wine–pear tart (like a pear tarte tatin), after the pears had cooked but before the pastry was added. Yesterday I had about a cup of merlot left in the bottle and wanted to try cooking something with it, so I made this tart from A New Way to Cook. The recipe called for 2 1/2 cups dry red wine, so I halved the recipe, making a small, four-serving tart. The wine cooking liquid is flavored with vanilla, which (however improbable it may seem) works. The two flavors—the deep, mellowness of the wine and the fragrant sweetness of the vanilla—amplified each other. The flavor that gets lost, though, is the pear.

Mix 1 cup wine, 2 tablespoons sugar and half a vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and scraped in a nonstick skillet (mine was 8 inches across the bottom). Simmer that for five minutes, then take it off the heat to cool a bit and add two sliced pears in whatever pattern you want the tart to have, cutting up a few slices to fill in the empty spaces. Simmer that in the wine, turning once, for about 45 minutes, until the wine is syrupy and the pears are tender. At this point you can leave the pears sit for a while or cover the pears with a thin round of pastry dough (I used one of those refrigerated pie crusts cut down to fit), then bake at 425 degrees until the crust is browned, about 15 minutes.

Right when you're ready to serve, unmold onto a cakeplate. If the tart has cooled, you can heat the pan briefly over medium heat to loosen it before you try to unmold it.