I went back and forth for a few days trying to decide whether or not to share this recipe today. I mean, it's roasted grapes—that's it. Simple to make, no big frills, no huge backstory. Just roasted grapes. For all I know, I was the last person on the face of the earth to actually make (or try) them. I've seen them floating around in one form or another for a number of years now. I've been meaning to make a batch. I finally did. They're everything I thought they would be. I didn't roast them alongside a chicken or a pork roast. I didn't press them into any focaccia dough. I didn't toss them with some perfectly cooked tender grains. They're just grapes, but they're totally worth sharing. Because maybe I wasn't the last person in the world to try them.
It's usually the simple pleasures that delight me the most. I'm constantly amazed by the product of time and temperature. Slowly simmering fruit and a bit of spice can yield a jar of rich, silky fruit butter (like this
Cardamom Pear Butter). Roasting broccoli and cauliflower takes both of those humble veggies to a whole different level. Pureed fruit and a low, slow heat produces chewy and sweet fruit leather. Duck legs wiling the day away in a bath produce meat so meltingly tender it just falls into your fingers at the lightest touch (like these
Asian-inspired Braised Duck Legs). Nothing more than time, steady heat, and its own rendered fat can turn pork into the most flavorful
Carnitas you'll ever taste. It's kind of amazing.
