Vanilla, Cinnamon & White Wine Poached Pears with Yogurt

Peel pears; discard skins. Using a tablespoon measure or a melon baller, core pears from their bottoms (remove the seeds, but leave the pears intact). Set aside.

Stir together wine, water, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel strips in a medium saucepan. Scrape split vanilla bean pods into mixture; add scraped pods. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Arrange pears on their sides in wine mixture; reduce heat to medium, and cover. Cook, turning pears occasionally to cook evenly all over, until pears are tender, about 30 minutes. Gently remove pears from wine mixture liquid; increase heat to high, and cook, undisturbed, until liquid reduces to about 3/4 cup and turns slightly syrupy, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove and discard cinnamon stick and orange peel strips from syrup. Let syrup cool slightly, about 20 minutes.

Place 2 tablespoons yogurt in the bottom of each of 4 shallow bowls. Top each with 1 poached pear; spoon 3 tablespoons syrup over each pear. Serve warm or at room temperature.