Easy Pear Tart Recipe
Marcella Hazan reassures in her trademark impassioned tone, “Only an active campaign of sabotage could ruin it,” as if to say, “You can’t possibly screw this up, you donkey.” With that in mind, I’ve never had as much confidence in trying out a new recipe.
She insists on using Bosc or Anjou pears and singles out Bartlett pears as a mediocre choice. Even with that little tidbit, this pear tart recipe still ranks high on my list of Unfussy and Easy Recipes with High Payoff. It’s the first thing I think of whenever pears are in season.
Before baking, do top with the optional cloves, or failing that, maybe a cinnamon stick or two. The addition of whole spices adds so much with so little effort.
recipe adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
“A Farm Wife’s Fresh Pear Tart”
makes one 9-inch tart, about 6 servings
Bosc, Red Anjou, and Green Anjou Pears
Equipment:
a 9-inch round cake pan, greased with butter and dusted lightly with bread crumbs
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 pounds fresh pears, preferably Bosc or Anjou (about 5 to 6)
butter for dotting the tart
12 whole cloves (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC with a rack in the upper third of the oven.
- Peel the pears, cut in half lengthwise, and core to remove the seeds. Slice the pear halves into thin slivers.
- Beat the eggs and milk in a bowl. Add the sugar and a pinch of salt and continue beating until well-blended.
- Add the flour to the eggs and milk. Mix to form a thick cake batter.
- Add the pears to the batter and mix gently until the slices are evenly coated. Deposit the batter in the greased and dusted cake pan.
- Top evenly with small pieces of butter and whole cloves (if using).
- Bake at 375ºF/190ºC for about 50 minutes, or until the top is well-browned.
- Let the pear tart cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before unmolding.
- Remove and discard the whole cloves (if using) before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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January 7th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Easy and delicious = wonderful!
Cheers,
Rosa
January 7th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I like the rustic look to this tart
January 7th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Ciao ! I can smell this wonderful pie !! And your raisin,walnut bread ….!!!
January 7th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Wonderful.I love pears.This seems pretty easy.Perfect dessert.HAPPY NEW YEAR
January 7th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Oooo looks good! I did the same thing, except I used apples and made a gingerbread for the cake part… so I guess it’s not really the same
silly me…
January 7th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Looks beautiful and I love pear desserts!
January 7th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Aah… I thought it would be along the lines of the pear tarts that have been around these days due to Tuesdays with Dorie– turns out it’s a torta di pera. Niiice. As a cake lover I’ll side with this
Maybe the cloves can steep in the milk instead?
January 7th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Okay, I’m emboldened by that reassurance. Think I’ll try.
Yours looks beautiful, as usual.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
beautiful! using 12 cloves amazed me. I’m sure it smelled fabulous!
had a good laugh reading the first para.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Delicious. I ve never tried pear tart so far. This one looks so comforting
January 7th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
i love cloves. and may i say, your tart looks as dense as i feel first thing in the morning.
January 7th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Pears mmmmmmmm and a tart mmmmmmmmmm you know how to entice with this easy peasy recipe. Always a joy to visit your blog. Happy NY to you and your family and friends.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
hiya, tks for sharing this – looks great. DH likes pears and I’m sure he’ll love this!
January 7th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
It is truly a work of art and sounds fragrantly appealing as well as appetizing. Love the rusticness too.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
This is a nice option if you are tired of apple tarts (yeah, like that’s possible) and sounds so easy to make.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I love that the ingredients are so simple – I bet it’s absolutely delicious!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:10 am
This looks fascinating. I would never have thought of baking a tart with whole cloves on it (because chances are, I would forget to remove them. D’oh!) Looks absolutely delicious.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Jude, the simplicity of this makes it really appealing. Beautifully rustic comes to mind as I read your recipe. Thanks.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:12 am
That does look wonderful. I shall check out this book (oh no, another for the wishlist..)
I love the warm spices, perfect for a snowy day.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Your pear tart looks divine. I love the warm, rich colour.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
This looks *very* appealing! Wonder if we’ll actually get to try making it. =)
January 8th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
That tart looks good. I like the large pieces of pear all the way through it.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Hehe that’s a very reassuring first sentence! I’ve got a recipe very similar to this and it is really wonderful
Love the pretty pears too!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I know it’s not true, but I’m pretending you’re big as a house from eating all these treats you whip up…
January 9th, 2009 at 12:54 am
What a lovely selection of pears you’ve got there. We don”t have much choice in pears here normally (Doyenne de Comice or Conference pears), those red pears look so beautiful. Lovely pie!
January 9th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
The tart looks down right comforting! I wish I could have a slice now!
January 9th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
So rustic and homey. Add a cup of coffee and a nice cozy nook, and a good cookbook to read…perfect.
And I like that bowl your pears are in…bamboo?
LL
January 10th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Beutiful tart I love pears and this tart looks so yummy
January 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Wow! I wish I would have had this recipe when I had pear trees – I never knew what to do with them all! And I love easy.
BTW, the Walnut Bread looks wonderful, too!
Happy New Year!
January 10th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I love the rustic presentations, you are fabulous. The tart looks Delish. I second what the other poster said.. the simplicity of it all with the lushness of the pears.. make it spot on!!
January 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I don’t know which I love more, the tart or Hazan’s instructions about how impossible it is to screw it up! Happy New Year, my friend!
January 11th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Jude: Who do you share your food with? Seriously. You must have family and friends just knocking DOWN your door.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:20 am
You know what would really set this off for me? A sliver or Roquefort. There’s just something about pears and bleu, I’m tellin’ ya.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:10 am
This cake really looks absolutely delicious!
Yummy!
// Jennie, a swedish food-blogger.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:50 am
I love recipes like this – a lot of taste bang for the effort put it. And my husband has become a fan of pear desserts, so I’m keeping this in mind.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Nice that there is no dough to roll out. That does make life easier. It’s sort of clafouti-like? Looks delicious and definitely worth trying.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Just bought some pears. Shall certainly try this tart recipe.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
mmm i love pears! what a great tart
January 16th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you
January 24th, 2009 at 8:09 am
hello! i’ve always liked your site but skulked around in the background, not giving comments. anyway this trat looks real good! i might make it myself. this is like a clafouti isn’t it?
January 26th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I wasn’t sure why this was called a tart. It does seem more like a clafouti. The batter settles in the bottom and forms a crust so I guess that’s where the tart part comes from.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:03 am
really cooleasy to make ty
February 17th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Dead easy and very satisfying, although I wouldn’t mind having a little citrus tang in it. Next time I’ll add some lemon peel, or perhaps a bit of that wonderful Fiore di Sicilia flavoring (citrus + vanilla) that The Baker’s Catalog sells.
August 12th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
[...] melodiousone I made a pear tart for my grandparents when they came over to visit before I moved. I think my picture turned out [...]
January 24th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
This was a great rustic recipe I loved it, however, it was missing a tartness or something. Next time i will make it with apples or cranberries the batter is delicious.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Just made it! Gorgeous – although mine’s ended up a bit more ‘cakey’ than the picture. But I like cake, so no problem!
February 11th, 2010 at 11:14 am
[...] in season. Enter the “A Farm Wife’s Fresh Pear Tart.” I found the recipe online here; apparently originally from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. It was [...]
March 11th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for the useful info…we are always looking for new blogs to link to.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Googled “pear tart” while in the grocery store trying to gather ingredients for a good winter desert. Wow, I got lucky, because everyone just loved it. The whole cloves sprinkled on top, then removed add a wonderfully subtle complexity if that makes sense. Am making it again today.
July 4th, 2010 at 12:55 am
This was fantastic! When I went to the store to get some of the ingredients, I realized I had not bothered to note how many pears I needed, so I only got 2. They were pretty big (over .5 pound each) but still not enough by themselves, so I threw a Granny Smith apple in with them. It wasn’t quite 2 pounds total but it worked out well anyway. The batter is “eggier” than I thought it was going to be, even with only 2 eggs, but it’s not overpoweringly so (my husband does not like eggy-tasting foods but he did like this.) I didn’t have whole cloves, so instead I sprinkled ground cloves over the top of the whole thing before baking. I also forgot to dot the top with butter and was afraid it would dry out, but it didn’t. It’s a different kind of dessert, not really a cake but not really a tart either (I think of tarts kind of like pies.) It was a very tasty diversion from the normal desserts I make. It was also VERY fast and easy to put together. Thanks for the recipe.