I don’t think there’s any point in writing about what to do with seasonal fruit: you just eat it. Berries, cherries, apricots, plums, melons and peaches, ripe and fragrant with summer scent – who needs recipes?
But if you do, if you have your own crop or if you need to disguise fruit as sweets to feed it to the little ones, I’m happy to help. Starting with the fruit we forget is fruit: tomatoes. This summer the fortunate owners of greenhouses have the winning hand, since the weather conspires against outdoor grown tomatoes although those are the tastiest. Eat them in salads, by all means, like the creamed corn and tomato one, but make at least one tomato tart Tatin or tomato crostata. You could also make tomato butter which can be spread on bread, tossed with pasta or spooned over steamed vegetables. Gorgeous!
Berries and stone fruit usually mean dessert but not necessarily so. Peaches roasted with blue cheese can be easily eaten for lunch, the same goes for baked figs. Pork with blueberry sauce is a great dish and any remaining blueberry sauce may be spooned over porridge. You can braise beef short ribs with plums and bake a cider and apple loaf of bread. But I agree: fruit desserts are the best thing.
Apricot frangipane tart perhaps? Or the classic sponge layered with berries and cream? You could also make my version of Eton mess: Athens mess, with shards of sweet filo pastry.
Blueberry parfait is the dessert you can have for breakfast, alternating it with my all-time favourite crunchy oats with summer fruit compote.
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