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Tropical Fruit

A diverse group, no single fruit family dominates in this category, but most tropical fruits display brilliant colors on their skins and emit a rich perfume of aromas in their flesh. The best tropical fruits for grilling include bananas, cherimoyas, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, plantains, and star fruit (carambola).

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Citrus

These fruits are the third-most commonly cultivated fruit in the world (just behind pome fruits and the banana/plantain family), not least because citrus trees yield large quantities of fruit. There are hundreds of varieties, but all have a similar anatomy. The outer colored peel or zest is known as the flavedo, a good name because that’s where the intensely flavorful essential oils and vitamin C tend to concentrate. Just beneath the flavedo lies the inner white peel or albedo (white pith), which tastes bitter yet is rich in pectin. The entire peel encases the pulp with segments consisting of delicate juice sacs (vesicles) held together by a fibrous membrane. Citrus fruits do not continue to ripen after harvest, so they must develop sweetness on the tree. The ripest citrus will feel plump, firm, and heavy for its size.

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How to Grill Fruit

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Most fruit can be eaten fresh, so there’s really no need to grill it to a certain degree of doneness (except for quince, which must be softened to be edible). You simply want to grill-mark it to caramelize some sugars and develop flavor. Direct, medium-high heat usually gets the job done quickly without turning the fruit to mush. Fruits are generally halved or sliced before grilling, but pome fruits like apples and pears can be cored and grill-baked or grill-poached whole over indirect heat. Stone fruits like peaches and plums only need to be pitted. Then the fleshy fruit can be grilled whole, halved, or sliced over direct medium-high heat. Citrus fruit like grapefruit is often halved and grilled cut-side down just until lightly browned. To expose more of the fruit to flame, slice the citrus crosswise into rings and grill the rings. When serving lemon or lime wedges for squeezing alongside fish or another dish, consider tossing the wedges on the grill for a smoky finish in the squeezed juice.

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Eaten raw, most fruit tastes best at the peak of ripeness. But for grilling, sometimes you want slightly underripe fruit so it won’t fall apart or get mushy. Choose just-ripe pears, peaches, nectarines, and bananas for the grill. The sky’s the limit when it comes to flavoring. Sweet is the defining flavor of most fruit, so try to round out the taste by adding pungency (chiles or mustard), saltiness (soy sauce), or richness (butter, yogurt, cream, or other dairy products). The flavor of some fruits, like tart apples and lemons, is naturally balanced with sour notes. As with meats and vegetables, you can flavor grilled fruit with all manner of marinades, glazes, syrups, spice rubs, and sauces. You can also core pome fruits or halve and pit stone fruits, and then stuff them with something delicious like cheese or nuts. You can grill whole stone fruits. Slit them along the seam, remove the stone, then replace it with a flavorful filling.

Grilled fruit is typically served alongside dessert, but grilled apples, peaches, and other fruit pair well with savory dishes, too. When grilling pork, poultry, or fish, consider tossing some fruit on the side of the grill as an accompaniment.

APPLES

Grill-Baked Apples with Sweet Sausage Stuffing

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Baked apples are usually stuffed with nuts and sticky-sweet brown sugar or maple syrup. But apples are also delicious with pork, so we’ve gone savory here and stuffed them with toasted walnuts, grilled cipollini onions, sweet sausage, and sage. On the grill, the apples pick up a hint of smoke, which enhances the taste of the sausage. There’s a bit of chopping and mixing, so bring a cutting board to the grill for this one.

INGREDIENTS:

4 small cipollini