Red Wine-Macerated Winter Fruit

Ingredients

• 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 creme fraiche
• Biscotti

Directions

Zest and juice 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 10 to 15 minutes.

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.

Serve fruit with mascarpone cheese or creme fraiche and biscotti.