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3. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or even overnight. Serve chilled, turning the orange slices over two or three times after taking them out of the refrigerator.

Note I find the oranges quite perfect as they are, but if you want to vary them or give them a more celebratory and emphatic accent, you could toss them, shortly before serving, with 2 tablespoons of one of the following liqueurs: Cointreau, white Curaçao, or best of all, Maraschino (see note).

Macedonia—Macerated Mixed Fresh Fruit

GEOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING, Macedonia is a region in southeastern Europe divided among what used to be Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria. The mixture of peoples that inhabit it must have suggested the name that has become attached to this famous fruit dish, whose success in fact depends on the greatest possible variety of ingredients.

Indispensable to fruit macedonia are apples, pears, bananas, and the juice of oranges and lemons. To these you should add as full a sampling of seasonal fruits as you can assemble, choosing them for diversity of textures, balancing succulence with firmness, giving ripeness the preference, but avoiding mushiness.

For 8 or more servings

1½ cups freshly squeezed orange juice

The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath

2 or 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (only 1 tablespoon if using the optional liqueur)

2 apples

2 pears

2 bananas

1½ pounds other fruit, such as cherries, grapes, apricots, plums, peaches, berries, mango, melon, and tangerine sections in as varied an assortment as possible

⅓ cup to ½ cup granulated sugar, to taste

OPTIONAL: ½ cup Maraschino liqueur (see note)

OPTIONAL: 3 tablespoons walnuts or peeled almonds, toasted in the oven and chopped coarse

1. In a tureen or punch bowl or other large serving bowl put the orange juice, grated lemon peel, and the lemon juice.

2. All the fruit, save for cherries, tangerine sections, grapes, and berries, must be washed, peeled, cored when applicable, and diced into ½-inch cubes. Add each fruit to the bowl as you prepare it, so that the citrus juices will keep it from discoloring.

3. Wash the cherries, grapes, and berries. Divide the cherries and grape berries in half, pitting the cherries and picking out the grape seeds, if any. Leave the other berries whole, if they are blueberries, raspberries, or currants. Put any blueberries or currants in the bowl. If you are using raspberries or strawberries, which become mushy when they steep in a marinade, add them 30 minutes before serving. Stem the strawberries, and cut the berries in half before adding them to the macedonia.

4. Put in the sugar and the optional liqueur and nuts, and toss thoroughly, but gently, taking care not to mash the more delicate fruits. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but not overnight. Serve chilled, tossing all the fruit gently 2 or 3 times before serving.

Mangoes and Strawberries in Sweet White Wine

MANGOES ARE NOT native to Italy, and absolute fidelity to indigenous ingredients would suggest you do this dish with peaches. If you can buy peaches that were picked ripe and are succulently sweet, forget the mangoes. I never see such peaches, except for a week or two in August, so for the rest of the year mangoes, their exotic flavor and texture notwithstanding, are a more desirable choice. They are usually least expensive when already ripe and ready to use. If they are still firm, let them ripen for 2 to 4 days at home at room temperature, until they begin to give under light pressure from your thumb.

For 6 servings

2 small, ripe mangoes OR 1 large one OR peaches

1½ cups fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath

1 cup good sweet white wine (see note below)

Note The ideal wine for macerating fruit is one made from moscato, the most aromatic of all grapes. Throughout the Italian peninsula, and beyond it to the Sicilian islands, ravishing sweet