DAILY DINNERS

Heat the oven to 220C/ Fan 200C/ Gas 7. Halve the pears, scoop out the pips and core using a teaspoon, then pull out the stalks. Mix the muscovado sugar with the lemon zest and pistachios, then spoon a little into each dip in the pears.

Cut the whole vanilla pod in half, then split each one down the centre. Lay one piece on each pear so that it sticks out where the stalks were. Put the pears on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

To make the sabayon, put the egg yolks, champagne and caster sugar in a metal or glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water. (Don't let the base touch the water!) Whisk together using electric beaters until the mixture thickens enough to fall very slowly from the beaters (about 15 mins) Spoon the sabayon carefully onto each pear so that it covers the surface, then flash the pears under a very hot grill, or use a blow torch, to brown the surface.