Ice cream and fruit make a classic combination and there must be hundreds of variations on this theme but the bottom line is you can use virtually any fruity combination and it is virtually guaranteed to turn out a winner.

I have recently fallen in love with new-age pink port which is slightly drier than traditional port and which adds a superb taste to fruit when poached lightly together. You will find pink port at most liquor outlets and it is not too expensive. In fact, it is cheaper than most liqueurs…

But back to today’s fruity recipe in which we will be using orange peel (you can also use lemon zest if you can't find oranges). Few people I know realise how tasty orange peel can be when dried and then grated or broken up in small pieces and added to foods and desserts.

I remember as a youngster my mother and many of her friends always had rings of orange peel drying somewhere shady after which it would be stored in jars and used, particularly in winter in soups, stews and curries.

So do try it, you won’t be sorry and, what’s more, it cost absolutely nothing because you would have thrown the peel away in any case.

So, back to the recipe for which we will be using summer fruits such as nectarine, peach, mango, a mango and some pineapple – but again, choose your own, if you prefer.

To make four portions of port-poached fruit you need:

Ingredients

1 cup chopped pineapple

2 peaches, stoned removed and chopped

2 nectarines, stoned and chopped

1 mango

Juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 tablespoon brown sugar

60g castor sugar

A few drops of vanilla essence

½ cup pink port

Method

Heat the sugar, port, brown sugar, castor sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, orange peel and vanilla essence together until sugar has dissolved then add all the fruit, toss gently to coat, then simmer until the fruit just start to go soft (don’t stir too cook too long otherwise the fruit will go mushy)

We love this served warm with really well-chilled ice cream so choose a flavour to suit your palate. For something quite different go for banana flavour.

You can also use custard (even the instant in a carton if you are really still chilling out) or mascarpone.