Roasted Stone Fruit Sundaes

This recipe and photos were provided by Sally Roeckell of Table and Dish and were originally published at 365Barrington.com.

Cooking and eating foods that are at the peak of their season always seems to be the best way to ensure great flavor. Sadly, there are some foods that we wish could be in season year round. For me, stone fruits are in that category. In this week’s Cooking with Heinen’s post, I’m sharing one of the simplest ways to enjoy these delicious fruits.

Steaming, grilling or roasting vegetables to bring out the natural sugars always tastes better to me than heavy sauces. Now, don’t get me wrong, sauce has its place and I love butter and cheese, but for many of my favorite fresh produce finds I like them the way Mother Nature made them.

This holds true for today’s recipe. The fruits are washed, pitted and cut into chunks, spread out onto a parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkled with a little raw sugar and rich balsamic vinegar then tossed to let the heat of the oven coax out the flavors and sugars naturally present in these fruits.

I serve this roasted, sweet, goodness over french vanilla ice cream and top it with crunchy toasted walnuts. It’s great with a glass of white wine or even for breakfast the next morning with granola and yogurt…if there’s any left, that is!

Roasted Stone Fruit

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ pound stone fruit (any combination of peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots and/or cherries)
• ¼ cup turbinado (raw) sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• vanilla ice cream (or yogurt/frozen yogurt/dairy-free ice cream)
• optional add-ins: freshly toasted almonds/pistachios/walnuts or granola

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the fruit: peel, pit and slice peaches/nectarines, pit and slice plums, and pit and halve cherries.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Toss the stone fruit with sugar and balsamic vinegar and spread into a single layer.
• Bake for about 30 minutes, tossing halfway. Serve warm, with ice cream.

Notes:

Recipe yields enough for 4 modestly sized sundaes. Leftover roasted fruit is great with yogurt and granola for breakfast. Here, I sautéed walnut pieces in a small pat of butter until toasted, then crumbled them over the fruit.