Roasted Italian Plums

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   1. Preheat oven to 300F.

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   2. Wash the plums and remove any stems. Halve them, removing the pits, and place the halves, cut side up, on a foiled cooking sheet.

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   3. In a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle), grind the thyme and rosemary. Take a moment to enjoy the smell. Combine the herbs with the sugar and mix thoroughly.

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   4. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the plums and place the plums in the oven for 30 minutes. After that, raise the heat to 425F and cook for another 15 minutes.

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   5. While the plums are roasting, prepare the vanilla pudding as indicated on the package, using 4 cups of milk and two packages of pudding mix. When the pudding is nearly set, stir in the liqueur. This fancy maneuver is what allows me to now call it a custard (wink). Chill the custard until the plums are ready.

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   6. Once the plums are done, remove them from the oven. There should be a good amount of liquid on the foil. That is red gold. Place the custard in serving dishes, arrange plum slices throughout the custard and garnish with that red gold.

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   I just made this last night, trying to find a way to use up my plums before they went bad, and I wanted something that wasn't too sweet and had some magical notes in it. The herbs were a brilliant idea. Next time, I think I'm going to add lavender as well, for a more Provencal feel.

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   Feel free to make your own custard from scratch. I would have, except that today was my shopping run to Trader Joe's and they had these new preservative-free, additive-free pudding mixes that were begging me to try them.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.