Recipe: Clafoutis is the answer to stone fruit dilemmas

Quick batter properly exploits that incredible local fruit you bought with the best intentions then forgot

Clafoutis of Niagara County prune plums

Tactical recipes are the answer to a particular dilemma. This time of year, with Western New York’s finest fruit peaking, you need to know about clafoutis. 

Say cla-footie like the French do and voila, you have the answer to a pile of ripe fruit about to go into the compost heap. Despite your earnest efforts to get more local produce into your diet, the impulse buy of a basket of nectarines ran afoul of the reality of your life. 

Don’t chuck them. Whip up a quick batter, slip them in the oven, and any meal, day or night, will be bettered by clafoutis. 

The riper the better. More fruit nectar to drain into the thickening custard. 

Any stone fruit seems to work - and Concord grapes, too. Just wash them, toss them into a buttered baking dish. Then whip, pour, bake, dollop, and away you go. Do wash and remove pits from peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and cherries, though. Rhubarb works, too.

Clafoutis of Niagara County Concord grapes, baked longer for a golden surface.

The French like to leave the pits in, arguing that it adds more flavor. They are correct. They also have free dental coverage.