This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

　　

Ingredients

Serves 6

　　1 lemon

　　3 cups water

　　1 1/2 cups dry red wine

　　2 tablespoons sugar

　　1 cinnamon stick

　　1/2 large firm-ripe pineapple

　　1 1/4 pounds mixed dried fruit such as prunes, apricots, figs, and cranberries

　　

Accompaniments:

mascarpone cheese or crème fraîche

　　cashew orange biscotti

　　

Step 1

Remove zest from lemon with a vegetable peeler and squeeze juice from lemon. In a saucepan bring water to a boil with zest, lemon juice, wine, sugar, and cinnamon stick, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer mixture 15 minutes.

　　

Step 2

While mixture is simmering, peel and core pineapple and cut into bite-size pieces. Halve figs if using. Pour hot syrup through a sieve into a bowl. Stir pineapple and dried fruit into syrup and cool. Chill fruit, covered, at least 8 hours and up to 2 days.

　　

Step 3

Serve fruit with mascarpone or crème fraîche and biscotti.