How to turn your pineapple into a showstopper

You can’t please me: the grass is always greener. I spend the summer months longing for a time when crumbles and stew, cardigans and the big duvet, are not only welcome but required. Then as soon as we hit the autumn and the weather changes, I’m trying to hold onto the last vestiges of sunshine. This, I suppose, is as close as I can get to a compromise, a middle ground: pineapple, peeled but whole, still sporting its Sideshow Bob haircut, roasted until cooked all the way through, and caramelised on the outside. Served hot with ice cream, or boozy cream, and drizzled with the spicy, dark glaze that drips off during cooking, it captures all the flavours of summer and yet still delivers warmth.

Vanilla and pineapple were made for each other: the fragrant seeds bring out the natural complexities in the sweetness of the fruit, and the smokiness of the vanilla pairs well with a little chilli pepper, giving a gentle hum of spice to the dish. Use proper vanilla paste, rather than an extract or essence: apart from a better, more intense flavour, the speckling of the black beans across the roasted fruit is beautiful.

Prepping a pineapple is a little bit fiddly the first time you do it, but worth it for the visual impact, and to make sure you lose as little of the golden flesh as possible. Once you’ve removed the skin of the pineapple (I find this easiest using a bread knife, cutting the peel off in vertical strips while the pineapple stands on a chopping board – but make sure you do not do what my father did, holding the pineapple in his hand and cutting towards hi, unless you too also want to lose all nerve endings in one of your fingers), you’ll be left with a series of ‘eyes’ all over the fruit, the spots where the spikes grow from.