Fruit Category

A key ingredient in Salade Niçoise, these small purplish-black olives have a distinctive sour flavor. They're great in tapenades.

These tart, firm apples are terrific in pies, but they're hard to find.

These black olives from France are salt-cured, which makes them wrinkly and more bitter than standard lye-cured American black olives.

This melon hails from Israel, and it's very highly regarded by melon fans.

This cross between a youngberry and a loganberry is black and fairly sweet.

A staple of Mediterranean cuisines, olives are most often eaten out of hand, though cooks also use them to flavor everything from pizzas to martinis. Raw olives must be cured before they can be eaten, and the curing medium--usually lye, brine, or salt--affects their flavor and texture. So too does the olive's degree of ripeness when it's picked. Green olives are picked while unripe, which makes them denser and more bitter than brown or black olives, which stay on the tree until fully ripened. Olives become bitter if they're cooked too long, so always add them to hot dishes at the last minute. Opened cans or jars of olives should be refrigerated, but some olives can be stored at room temperature if they're submerged in brine or olive oil.

These are used in sauces and soups. They're hot.

This is a mild squash, similar to zucchini.

Most American oranges are produced in Florida and California. Florida oranges are juicier, and better suited to squeezing, while California oranges segment more easily and are better for eating out of hand. The best oranges are smaller, thin-skinned, and heavy for their size.

This is made by boiling the fruit and peel of oranges with sugar, pectin, and water. It manages to be bitter, sour, and sweet all at once, which many people find delightful.

This tart fruit looks and tastes like a gooseberry.

With their subtle tropical flavor, papayas are wonderful in fruit salads, puréed fruit drinks, or even shish kabobs. They're also good for you and easy to peel and seed. Papayas from Hawaii are more common and more flavorful than those from Mexico. Yellow ones that yield to gentle pressure are ready to eat, and should be refrigerated. Green ones will ripen at room temperature in just a few days.

This is the dried version of the chilaca chili. It's mild, long, black, and wrinkled, and a standard ingredient in mole sauces. Ancho chilies are sometimes mislabeled as pasillas.

This nutritious, aromatic fruit has a tart, sweet flavor. The sweet purple variety is the most common, but you can also find yellow passion fruit (sometimes called golden passion fruit), which is more acidic, and a giant version that has a more subtle flavor. Choose fruit that have wrinkled skins (indicating that they're ripe) and heavy for their size. To eat one, cut it in half and scoop out the pulp. You can eat the small seeds, but some people remove them.

These have a pleasant, nutty flavor. They're small enough to grill whole, but lots of recipes call for them to be hollowed out, stuffed, and baked. There are green and yellow varieties; yellow ones are sometimes called sunburst squash.

Real pawpaws are native to North America, and have green peels, orange flesh, and taste like a blend of tropical fruit. They're hard to find in markets, though, since they must be eaten within a few days of being picked. Pawpaws continue to ripen after they're picked, and should be eaten only when they yield to a gentle squeeze, like a ripe avocado. Australians use the name pawpaw for the papaya, while others use it for the cherimoya.

These tiny Thai eggplants are quite bitter. They're sold in clusters and look like large green peas. You can find them fresh in Thai markets, or buy them pickled in jars.

Most of the peaches that are sold in markets are freestone, and de-fuzzed by the grower. Select peaches that are colorful and free of bruises. After you get them home, let them ripen at room temperature for a day or so until they become softer. They're best and cheapest in the summer.

These are juicy and have a mild melon flavor. You can eat the peel if you like.

These small red peppers are very hot.

This is very similar to a Japanese cucumber.

These are large, round melons. They're excellent when vine-ripened, but mediocre when not. Avoid Persian melons that have green backgrounds below the netting--they were picked too early. Also avoid those with protruding stems, or tears in the rind at the stem end--it's a tell-tale sign that the melon was picked too soon. When ripe melons are picked, the stem falls off easily, leaving a small, clean depression. They peak in the summer months.

There are two varieties: the dark orange, acorn-shaped Hachiya and the light orange, tomato-shaped Fuyu. Many people have sworn off persimmons for life after biting into an underripe, astringent Hachiya. But if you wait until it's ripened to a soft, shriveled mess, you can spoon out its exquisitely sweet and delicate pulp. Fuyus aren't as flavorful, but they're more idiot-proof in that you can eat them while they're still firm and not get your mouth in a pucker.

Picholines are green, torpedo-shaped olives that are brine-cured. Those made in Provence are marinated with coriander and herbes de Provence, while American picholines are soaked in citric acid. They make great martini olives.

Pimentos are often sold roasted and peeled in cans or jars, or used to stuff green olives.

Pineapples are juicy, mildly acidic, and very versatile. They can be squeezed for juice, sliced on cakes, skewered and grilled, or eaten raw without adornment. Select only ripe pineapples that give a little when you squeeze them. Hard, unripe pineapples stop becoming sweeter once they're picked. A new variety, the golden pineapple, is sweeter, juicier, and richer in vitamin C than ordinary pineapples. A white pineapple also has been developed. Canned pineapple is an acceptable substitute for fresh in many recipes.

This is a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Lady William. It's sweet and crisp, and good in salads and pies.

These peel easily and their flavor is excellent. One of the best varieties.

This is a firm, tart apple that's great for pies, baking, and applesauce.

These are insanely hot tiny peppers.

These look just like large green bananas, and they're usually cooked before eating. Hispanic and Caribbean use them like potatoes, either frying them or boiling them in stews. Different recipes may call for plantains in varying stages of ripeness, with their skins either green, yellow, or black. A green plantain will first turn yellow and then black if allowed to ripen at room temperature. As it ripens, the pulp becomes sweeter and less starchy.

Plums are juicier than other stone fruits, and have a longer growing season. There are many varieties, some sweet, some acidic, and some best suited for drying into prunes. They're often eaten out of hand, but they also work well in cobblers, compotes, and tarts.

This is a plum/apricot cross, with plum dominating.

These mild, heart-shaped peppers are large and have very thick walls, which make them great for stuffing. They're best in the summer. When dried, this pepper is called an Ancho chili.

The family of pome fruits include apples, pears, quinces, Asian pears, and loquats.

Cut through the pomegranate's leathery skin, and you'll find hundreds of pretty kernels, each with a tiny seed surrounded by ruby red pulp. You can eat the kernels, seeds and all, and they're great as garnishes or sprinkled in salads. You can also press the kernels for juice and strain out the seeds. Wear an apron when working with pomegranates; the juice can stain your clothes. They arrive in markets in the late summer and early fall.

Don't confuse this unsweetened juice with grenadine, which is a heavy, sweet syrup. Look for it in health food stores and Middle Eastern markets. Knudsen is a well-regarded brand.

This has a very thick peel, so you have to work to get at the pulp. Many people think it's worth the trouble, for a pomelo is milder and sweeter than its closest substitute, the grapefruit.

These are mild Italian brine-cured black olives.

The pulp of these cactus fruits is a brilliant red or, occasionally, a yellowish green, and it tastes a bit like watered-down watermelon. Cooks exploit the color by adding slices of the pulp to fruit salads, or by puréeing it and straining out the seeds. They're quite popular in Hispanic countries and around the Mediterranean.

In a marketing makeover, producers are starting to call these dried plums instead of prunes. Whatever you call them, they're sweet and just loaded with dietary fiber, iron, and other nutrients. You can eat them whole, chop them into sauces and stews, or make a compote out of them.