Fresh pineapple, chopped and resting on wire racks

















Thank you, Mark Bittman! You are my hero! I cut up a pineapple last week that was really not especially sweet. I didn't have the heart to throw it out but no one was eating it. Today, I bought Mark Bittman's new cookbook: The Food Matters Cookbook. And I discovered an amazing recipe that will change my life. It's on page 422, a recipe for Oven-Dried Tomatoes or Fruit. I prepared the pineapples as instructed, and WOW. The not-so-sweet fruit was transformed into a sweet, caramelized miracle. Unbelievable. I can't wait to try this with apples, peaches, plums. WOW.

In short, the technique is as follows : Heat the oven to 225*. Clean the pineapple and cut it into cubes. (You can see what size I made them in the photo above.) place the fruit on wire racks atop a baking sheet. Leave the fruit in the oven for a few hours. I left mine in for about six hours. The longer you leave them, the more dry they'll get, and the more concentrated the flavors will become.

Let them cool (or not) and either eat them right away or put them away for another time. Mark Bittman says to refrigerate them if they're at all soft, or store them in the pantry if they're completely dried out.Thank you, thank you!!!