The Overripe Fruits Iron Chef Stephanie Izard Never Throws Out

Here at The Takeout, we're no fans of throwing out usable ingredients and are committed to combating food waste one small step at a time. That's why we bring you suggestions like saving your vegetable scraps in a stock bag in the freezer so you can use them to make soup at a later date. It's nice to see a celebrity chef who shares our POV — sometimes it seems they all want us to buy the "very best" ingredients regardless of the cost and insist that freshness is next to godliness.

Stephanie Izard is a "Top Chef" victor, winner of the first season of "Iron Chef Gauntlet," and proprietor of numerous successful restaurants with "goat" in the name, and she has a more relatable take on things. She told Food & Wine that she, like the rest of us, saves overripe bananas to make banana bread, but those aren't the only past-their-prime fruits she spares from the landfill. She says she's also a fan of cooking with overripe stone fruits.

Izard will typically use these soft fruits to make jam. Nectarines or peaches are her favorites, although plums or apricots also work. As she points out, though, the riper the fruit, the more sugary it tastes, so a little acid is necessary to counteract all that sweetness. She favors adding champagne vinegar, but many peach and nectarine jam recipes call for using lemon juice instead.

The thing about baking with fruit is that it softens with heat, so if you start with fruit that's slightly overripe, who's going to know? Yes, it may be somewhat sweeter, as Stephanie Izard informed us, so you might want to reduce the amount of sugar, but this may not be necessary if you've got a real sweet tooth. Pies, cakes, crisps, cobblers, and muffins are just a few of the different types of baked goods that could be made with soft stone fruits. 

Overripe stone fruits are also perfect for any recipe that involves pureeing. They can flavor a batch of quick, machine-free ice cream or be combined with sugar and water to make an easy three-ingredient granita. (Since granita relies on the proper ratio of ingredients, it's best not to reduce the sugar, but you can replace a splash of the water with lemon juice if you prefer a tarter dessert.) If you're feeling super lazy, you can always just toss them into a smoothie.

Softened stone fruits can even find their way into savory recipes. If you blend them with some seasonings and vinegar, they can be used to glaze chicken, pork, or shrimp. Pureed stone fruits can also be stirred into barbecue sauce to add some fruity flavor or turned into a sweet and spicy stone fruit chutney, relish, or salsa.