Cantaloupe is only one of many fruits that can be roasted to heighten flavor

Over the past several months, we’ve noticed a number of recipes that suggest roasting fruit to maximize flavor – even restoring flavor in dull fruit. Roasting vegetables – cauliflower, green beans, even tomatoes – is fairly obvious, but fruit? Of course, it does make sense – roasting caramelized the inherent sugars in food. But there’s the possible problem of destroying the fruit’s structure, reducing it to a soggy, pulpy mess.

However, it turns out, as Food 52 points out in their article, The Joy Kitchen’s Roasted Cantaloupe, all it really takes to prevent the bad ending is a little care and attention and stopping the roasting before it shrivels. Just wash, cube, toss in a little sugar if you’d like (this helps to deal with excess moisture) and roast at 400 degrees until just beginning to shrink – Here’s the printable recipe for cantaloupe.

It’s easy to try this trick with other fruit that may need a little perking up, especially strawberries, plums, apples (try making applesauce out of roasted apples rather than cooked on the stove top), mango, pineapple, peaches, nectarines, apricots – even grapes.

And then feel free to experiment – run them under the broiler for even more caramelization, sprinkle fresh herbs over them, combine two or more fruits. And I’m sure our members have more ideas. Enjoy!

 Photo by James Ransom