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I think there was a thread here about lasagna and dessert to go with.

I fixed lasagna Tuesday night for company and it is a heavy meal -- for you always have to serve garlic bread with it -- so you have LOTS of pasta and LOTS of bread and a regular dessert -- pie or cake is often TOO much!

I was in a dilemma as to what to serve without adding too many MORE carbs to the meal -- we were on carb overload as it was.

I found a recipe in a favorite cookbook, Country Weekend Entertaining by Anna Pump for Baked Fall Fruit. Baked pears, apples and plums. I adapted because there was nary a plum in the market and substituted nectarines (similar skin I thought) and proceeded. She recommended serving it with rum raisin ice cream and we can get a Haagan Das version here so I thought perfect!

It was simple, it was rustic and with the ice cream it was sooo good. Not polite, "this is nice", but "wow, is this ever good", "this is really really good" comments.

Ms. Pump recommended serving it at room temperature -- I left it to "cool" in the oven while we had the main course so it was still warm but not HOT.

If you're serving a lasagna (or a pasta heavy) meal to family or company and want dessert -- I recommend this -- it's easy and actually could be increased or decreased depending upon how many you're feeding.

My only regret -- I forgot to take a picture!

BAKED FALL FRUIT

4 apples, cored and cut into 8ths
3 pears, cored and cut into 6ths
6 plums, pitted and cut in half*
3/4 c. sugar
zest of 1 orange

Put all the fruit into a large baking dish, sprinkle with sugar and orange zest and mix.

Bake at 400 for 1 hour. Cool to room temperature. Serve with a scoop of rum raisin ice cream.

NOTE: I used 4 nectarines and cut them into 4ths (because they're bigger than plums) and I let mine cool in the oven so it was still warm -- just barely -- really a good temp -- and the ice cream slowly melted as we ate.

Martha

That sounds delicious. I like baked and grilled fruits. I would probably go with vanilla ice cream, though, as I don't like rum raisin.

We spent Christmas in Colorado with our kids. Each was asked to submit a brunch and dinner menu to me for our meals. At Thanksgiving DS1 looked through my new cookbook a friend had given me for my birthday "The Seasonal Baker" by John Barricelli and spotted pineapple with star anise I'd dog earred, "this looks good." It was fabulous, recommended to serve chilled over ice cream, but we first had it warm for brunch and then another day over ice cream as dessert after lasagne. I brought home and used the flavored juices to brine a ham for dinner and that was excellent, too. I put his book right next to Anita Pritchard's & Ina's on my favorites shelf alongside my Junior League collection.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lurah,