One of the fruit flavours found in pinot noir is rhubarb, so for a ravishing dessert, poach tender rhubarb chunks and sandwich them between buttery sheets of filo pastry with softly whipped cream.

Ingredients

• 2 cups pinot noir
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 1 kilogram rhubarb, trimmed and washed
• 1 cup cream, whipped and sweetened to taste
• icing sugar for dusting

Filo squares

• 6 sheets filo pastry
• 50 grams butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 2 tablespoons flaked almonds

Method

1. Heat the pinot noir, sugar and vanilla pod in a lidded frying pan (make sure it is clean, with no residual strong oniony meat odours). Simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Cut the rhubarb into 2-3cm pieces and place in the frying pan. Cover and bring to a gentle 'murmur' (barely simmering) for 5 minutes. Test the rhubarb. If it is not cooked, turn off and allow the rhubarb to sit in the pinot noir until just cooked. It will not take long and the danger here is of over-cooking this gentle fruit.
3. Use a holed spoon to transfer the rhubarb to a plate and set aside. Reduce the pinot noir to ¾ cup by simmering gently. Leave to cool before folding through the fruit.
4. Sandwich the fruit and cream between filo pastry squares, using the ones with the flaked almonds for the top. Dust with icing sugar.

Filo squares

1. Brush one layer of the filo pastry with melted butter and sprinkle over a fine layer of ground almonds. Cover with a second layer of filo, the butter and ground almonds. Continue in this way finishing the last layer of filo with butter only.
2. Trim the sides and cut into 12 even squares. Transfer to a greased baking tray. Top half the filo squares with the flaked almonds.
3. Bake at 190ºC for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool and keep stored in an airtight container until ready to use.