Serves: 5
The botanical purpose of a fruit is to protect and nurture a seed until it is ready to grow into a new plant. When the seed is mature, the fruit ripens, making it attractive to animals. Hopefully they will eat the fruit, thus scattering its seed and helping the plant species to flourish. As a fruit ripens, its skin blushes with color it gets softer and juicier its starch is converted to sugar, making the fruit sweeter and enzymes break down its cell walls, releasing a characteristic perfume. For fruits like tomatoes, corn, and avocados, full ripeness is the essence of quality, but for most fruit-vegetables ripening is a process of diminishing returns.
Think about the qualities of full ripeness, such as soft flesh, sweetness, and pronounced aroma. They are the very attributes that make a cucumber or zucchini undesirable. Ripe cucumbers are yellow and soft. Ripe zucchini are flaccid and full of seeds. Completely ripened eggplants are flabby and bitter. These fruits are judged by the opposite criteria--firmness, smallness, greenness, and a clean, fresh aroma.
Bell peppers are the trickiest of all fruit-vegetables in which to judge quality. Part of the problem is that the desirable degree of ripeness changes with the pepper. Green bell peppers are underripe. They should be very firm, be heavy for their size, and give off a characteristic acrid aroma. Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are green peppers that have been left to ripen. They should have vivid color and a heady, sweet fragrance, but unlike other ripe fruits, peppers should never be soft. The line between a ripe bell pepper and a rotten one is very thin. Choose carefully, avoiding ones with bruises, soft spots, or a musty odor.
This _Vegetables That Are Fruit recipe is from the Homemade in a Hurry Cookbook. Download this Cookbook today.
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