MANGO AND PASSIONFRUIT MESS WITH BASIL AND PISTACHIOS RECIPE

You can go the easy way with this and buy sliced mango, sachets of passion fruit pulp and ready-made meringue – just add some chopped pistachios as you put the pudding together and forget the basil. The from-scratch version is more special, but only you can decide how much time you want to spend cooking.

Timings

Prep time: 25 minutes, plus overnight cooling and 45 minutes’ infusing

Cook time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Serves

Eight

Ingredients

For the meringues

  • 3 large egg whites
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 40g shelled pistachios
  • ½ tsp cornflour
  • ½ tsp cider vinegar

To assemble

  • 150g granulated sugar
  • leaves from 6 sprigs of basil
  • 600g ripe mango flesh, chopped into 1cm pieces (roughly)
  • 375ml double cream
  • 200g Greek yogurt
  • finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 8 tbsp icing sugar (or to taste)
  • juice and seeds from 7 passion fruit (or you can use sachets of passion fruit pulp available in M&S)

Method

1. The meringues can be made up to a week ahead. Heat the oven to 130C/120C fan/gas mark 1. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks. Start adding the sugar a tablespoon at a time, continuing to whisk until you have a firm, glossy mixture.

2. Grind the nuts in a food processor using the pulse button (you want some to be ground, others to be in chunks). Fold these into the meringue along with the cornflour and vinegar.

3. Cover a large baking sheet with baking parchment and spoon meringue rounds on to it. As you’re going to break them up it doesn’t matter how neat they are. Bake in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the meringues in the oven overnight. The next day, peel the meringues off the paper.

4. Heat the granulated sugar and 150ml water in a saucepan, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. Bring to the boil and boil for two minutes. Take the pan off the heat and add the basil. Leave for 45 minutes so the basil can infuse the syrup, then pour over the mango in a bowl to coat. Leftover syrup goes well with strawberries or sliced oranges.

5. Put the mess together just before you want to serve it – any sooner and it ends up soggy. Whip the cream and mix it with the yogurt, lime zest and juice, and icing sugar to taste. Break up the meringues. 

6. Layer the mess in individual glasses, spooning in the mango, cream mixture, passion fruit and meringue. End with a layer of cream and the last of the passion fruit. Serve immediately.

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2023-03-30T11:00:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd