Letter of Recommendation: Fruit Salad

Fruit salad? I know. But once I realized I’d been doing it wrong and started doing it right, I can’t get enough of it–especially this weekend since it’s MUCH hotter than it should be out, and my friend Cassandra brought over the most beautiful assortment of candy-stripe figs, berries, and yellow-doll watermelon….

Here’s the thing I was doing wrong with fruit salad: You can’t just chop up fruit and throw it in a bowl; you have to compose and balance it, the same way you would any dish. When I learned to balance salty/sweet/sour, my cooking immediately jumped a couple of levels: when I threw bitterness/fat/heat into the mix, another level. Texture, another level….. Unsurprisingly, when I treated fruit salad at that higher level, I got predictably great results.

Fruit is basically sweet, crunchy, and juicy (maybe a bit sour). So anything you do to counter-balance that combo is going to bring the flavors and textures out. That’s why Mexican street vendors put lime, salt, and tajin on the fruit they serve, and it’s pure genius. The salad pictured above is my version of that except with shichimi togarashi in place of the tajin. Another really great recipe along these lines is this one from Galilean chef Erez Komarovsky, which pits ripe red cherries against spicy chiles, tart pomegranate molasses, fragrant cilantro, and crunchy toasted walnuts. And I love this watermelon and feta salad. The contrasts in these recipes bring out the essence of the fruit rather than covering it up.

But creaminess is another nice direction to go in to counter-balance the crunchy and juicy mouthfeel of fruit–the essential inspiration behind the “ambrosia” salads of the 50s and 60s. My updated version of ambrosia is fruit topped with whipped cream sweetened with honey (and maybe a drop of rose water to turn up the volume on the flavor of rose-family apples and pears if they’re in there) and a healthy sprinkle of toasted pecans for texture. You can also add avocado to most fruit salads for a nice creamy contrast, and as a bonus, the acid in the fruit juice will keep the avocado from browning as quickly.

I’ve found visual texture is important, too. While I enjoy a rainbow summer salad, it’s just as fun to do an all-yellow or all-green composition of kiwis, melon, and grapes, for instance. The monochromatic background makes the different textures and flavors of the fruit pop.

You can even elevate fruit salad to fine-dining level: like these caramelized oranges that would strike a very refreshing finishing chord after a hearty osso bucco in the winter. I have fond memories as well of the tableside zabaglione at Villa Fontana in Taos, whipped up in a copper bowl tableside and dolloped over a medley of figs and grapes.