Summer Fruit Compote with Panettone
The heat of summer can be exhausting at this time of year in Sydney in late February. Despite the heat, it's one of my favourite times of the year for fresh produce. Summer fruits are at their absolute best, especially stone fruits like peaches and apricots and plums, and of course berries of every kind are abundant.
And let's not forget figs! Sweet and juicy, very ripe, and cheap as chips at the markets at this time of year. There are a lot of things you can do with figs from savoury to sweet. But that's for another blog post. If you want some recipes, there's one or two on the blog now - just put “figs” in “Search”.
This recipe is actually a way of using up some of that brilliant stone fruit that's been lying around waiting to be eaten and probably forgotten by me. So today I grabbed some peaches and plums and some strawberries that were lying rather neglected in the refrigerator.
I had a Panettone leftover from Christmas. Well not really leftover, I actually bought it after Christmas very cheaply, because I needed the tin that the Panettone came in. I make my own Panettone every other Christmas and it's really handy to have a tin to store it in.
So I created a lovely and easy dessert based on those forgotten fruits and slices of Panettone, served with Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey. It's not really a recipe but here's my method for putting it together.
For the compote
A quantity of summer stone fruit, roughly chopped, and berries, to taste
A tablespoon of caster sugar for every cup of fruit
A tablespoon of water for every cup of fruit
Thick slices of Panettone, to taste
Greek yoghurt and runny honey, to serve
Place the stone fruit and berries in a medium size saucepan with the sugar and water over a low heat. Cook until the fruit has softened and is starting to look like a compote, ie the fruit is cooking down to a slightly jam like consistency. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Take thick slices of Panettone and lay each one in a serving dish. Spoon over the compote making sure you get enough juice to soak into the Panettone. Serve with a good dollop of Greek yoghurt and drizzle over some runny honey. Delicious!