Sweet treats

ALL TOO soon back at work, sitting at a computer screen and putting on a brave face, while a blue sky bathes the garden in scorching rays.

I leave weeding raids for the early mornings when I have the energy and the cool of the night is still on the lawn.

I lazily fend off powdery mildew from the courgettes with a regular spray of cooled camomile tea solution, and pluck out laterals.

Mostly, I float about trying to think of dinner, picking and harvesting. I am curious about what 2013 will be, aware that it hasn’t reached full speed yet.

It is now, after all the hullabaloo of Christmas and New Year, that I am craving a treat.

The sweet abandon of festiveseason puddings has left its signature on my hips, but I miss it already. My sense of occasion and my pudding nerve has been reawakened and there is so much fruit available it’s rude not to take advantage. Before long it will be dark nights and apple crumble.

Now is the time to have a spontaneous picnic. Even if you don’t take the time to cook, dust off the hamper and throw down that tartan blanket on the lawn.

This pudding is so good it didn’t make it to the dinner party – we had to eat it in on the porch with friends on a sunny afternoon.

Invented because of a hankering for something sweet and two bags of mascarpone languishing in the fridge, it has the perfect balance of sweet, tart, fresh and creamy.

The thick slightly tangy cream is mascarpone. Considered a soft cheese, like cream cheese it is cream that has been heated and coagulated with citric or tartaric acid. This should mean a short shelf life. However, the packets I buy in the supermarket have a long best-before date, which is why I keep them about.

Excellent for last-minute inspired desserts or to enrich a risotto, especially of the lemon and seafood variety, a packet or two can also be pressed into duty as a reasonable tiramisu with a lick of fabulous coffee and a handful of finger biscuits from the deep recesses of the pantry.

I like to think of this recipe as a summer tiramisu, although technically the use of fruit takes it into the world of a charlotte.

Regardless, as long as the terrine mould is lined and the syrup berry combination is cooled before layering, no-one will care what you call it.

The other ingredient floating about at the back of my pantry is pomegranate molasses, a flavour that comes from Spanish and Arabic cuisines. It is used in plenty of tapas recipes and has a sweet-sour flavour like tamarind.

Add it to vinaigrettes for an interesting twist. It works very well with soft cheeses and fruit.

A decade ago I was wowed by a Peter Gordon recipe for pomegranate vinaigrette, which was used on a simple salad of sliced tomato and mozzarella, perfect for this time of year and reason enough to invest in a bottle.