THE SUN-SOAKED PLATE...Mediterranean recipes for family and friends

   There is, perhaps, no ingredient more representative of autumn than a crisp, sweet-acidic, juicy pear. In the kitchen, pears are at their best when treated with a certain tenderness. Slice them too roughly and they bruise; cook them too quickly and they collapse. But give them time and a little attention, and they reward you with a soft, fragrant richness that makes even the simplest dish feel more alive. They have a remarkable ability to carry spice. A cinnamon stick, a few cardamom pods, or a star anise dropped into a pot of gently simmering pears will transform them into something close to a winter dessert. Poached in white wine or apple cider, they become translucent and jewel-like, taking on the character of whatever they swim in. I love to poach them in saffron and serve them with a chocolate-cardamon sauce and a scoop of mascarpone or a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and you have something effortlessly elegant. But pears aren’t only for sweet moment...

    From winter blossom to autumn harvest, the humble almond tells a story of Mallorca’s landscape, history and kitchen.   Spain is one of the world’s great almond-producing countries, with orchards stretching across the Mediterranean regions of Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia, as well as Aragón and the Balearic Islands. Here in Mallorca, the annual harvest has already taken place and marks another turn in the island’s agricultural calendar.   Traditionally, almonds were gathered by spreading fine nets beneath the trees and striking the branches with long wooden poles. The ripe nuts fell onto the netting, ready to be collected, dried and shelled. It sounds wonderfully rustic until you try it. I did, a few years ago. After several hours beneath the late-summer sun, swinging a pole above my head and chasing almonds across a dusty field, the romance had disappeared completely. It is punishing, backbreaking work—the kind that gives you a lasti...