Plums Roasted in Balsamic and Ginger

How many times do you buy fruit and it just never seems to ripen properly? Or worse yet, even when it does ripen it's bland and flavorless! What do you do ... eat it anyway, throw it out, feed it to your neighbor's dog?

I don't know about you, but with the high cost of grocery items, especially fruit, I can't afford to be throwing money away in that manner. Besides, I truly feel guilty when I throw out food or don't utilize as much of a food product as I can. When fruit is bland and flavorless, I turn to roasting them! Yes, that's right ... I roast my fruit. And when I do, guess what I get? Dessert!  Roasting takes bland fruit to "elegant as hell" dessert levels! The syrup, roasted fruit creates, rivals any chocolate syrup you can squirt over ice cream, or any granola or plain fruit you sprinkle over yogurt. The syrup, let me tell you about ... The syrup. It's thick, rich, it's sweet with just the right amount zing and a lovely, deep, jewel tone. And then there's the fruit itself! If fruit had a "make over" show, this would be it, drab to fab in under 45 minutes.

Serves 6

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup sugar 

1/4 brown sugar

1/4 water

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1" piece of ginger root, cut in half and smashed

6 plums, halved, pit removed

Sugar, to sprinkle over top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Whisk together the first 7 ingredients until sugars dissolve. Arrange the 12 plum halves, cut side down, into an 8x8 baking dish. It will be a very snug fit.

Pour the whisked ingredients over top of plums, so that each plum is moistened.

Lightly sprinkle sugar over plums, you just want a "kiss" of sugar over the plums. Roast for 30 - 40 minutes. 

Serve over ice cream, greek yogurt or Creme Fraiche.  ENJOY!