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fruit & cheese plates

Perfectly ripe fresh fruit is one the simplest and most enjoyable ways to end a meal. It’s effortless, healthful, and satisfying, especially when paired with cheese, its classic partner. Fresh fruit is best when it’s in season locally. In fact, when strawberries finally appear at the farm stand, they’re usually our first consideration in planning a menu: What would be a good supper to have before we eat the strawberries?

To create a cheese platter to serve alone or with fruit at the end of a meal, select cheeses with a range of tastes from delicate, mild, and buttery, to strong, rich, and nutty, to salty, sharp, and pungent. Choose a balance of textures from soft and voluptuous to hard and crumbly. Traditionally, a cheese course moves from mild cheeses to sharp to rich, but for the simplest presentation, arrange cheeses together on a platter with crackers (try crackers seasoned with pepper or rosemary) or thin slices of baguette. A few walnuts and a glass of port might be welcome also.

Some of our favorite ideas for simple fruit and cheese plates are:

• grapes with Gorgonzola, Brie, or Stilton

• cherries with nutty Gruyère or Emmental

• goat cheese with clementines or fresh or dried apricots, dates, or figs

• feta or ricotta salata with watermelon and cantaloupe

• pears with Roquefort, Taleggio, or Manchego and toasted walnuts or pine nuts

• plump dates with aged Parmigiano-Reggiano or with mascarpone and toasted walnuts or almonds

• a blue cheese surrounded with slices of oranges or Asian pears

• fresh figs or strawberries with thin wedges of Tuscan Pecorino or Pecorino Romano drizzled with honey and olive oil and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper

• In the fall and winter, lots of apple varieties are in season. Choose a couple you’re not familiar with and some old favorites. Serve the apples with several cheeses and sample all the different combinations of apples and cheese.

sweet spiced nuts

These glossy, burnished, not-too-sweet and not-too-spicy nuts are irresistible. With fresh or dried fruit, they make an elegant dessert. Or add to one of our Fruit & Cheese Plates. A great little something to snack on, too—we like to keep them around to nibble on when supper is a little late. They keep for up to a month.

YIELDS 3 CUPS

TIME: 25 MINUTES

⅓ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of cayenne (optional)

3 cups shelled nuts (pecans, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, cashews)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Generously oil a baking sheet.

In a saucepan on medium-high heat, stir together the sugar, ¼ cup of water, salt, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, and cayenne and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir constantly for a minute, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the nuts and mix well to evenly coat them with the syrup. Remove the coated nuts with a slotted spoon and spread them out on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake until browned, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once after 5 or 6 minutes. After you’ve taken them out of the oven, stir again to break apart any clusters. Allow the nuts to cool before serving.

warm plums with mascarpone

Warm caramelized plums are delicious paired with cool and creamy mascarpone. You can also cook the plums under a broiler for about 10 minutes or on a tabletop grill for 5 minutes.

SERVES 4 TO 6

TIME: 25 MINUTES

6 plums

¼ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup mascarpone cheese

1 tablespoon Marsala wine or an orange-flavored liquor, such as Grand Marnier

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Cut the plums in half and remove the pits. Fill each plum cavity with 1 teaspoon of the brown sugar and place the plums in a baking pan. Put 2 tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan and bake until the plums are browned and somewhat softened, about 20 minutes.

While the plums bake, mix together the mascarpone, Marsala, and the remaining brown sugar. When the plums are done, put a dollop of the