Leftover Sundae

Weeks ago, I read in Thyme for Cooking about a rhubarb-yogurt parfait but, at the time, I had no yogurt in the house, nor any rhubarb. Sounded good, but...

Fast forward to last weekend, when I made a delicious-but-very-juicy strawberry rhubarb pie for my neighbor. After the last piece disappeared, I was left with a pie plate full of fruit goozle. I couldn't bear to throw it away.

Bingo! The idea of that rhubarb parfait sprang back to mind and, happily, this time I had yogurt in the fridge as well.

All you do is alternate a plop of yo with a driz of rhu and you've got a breakfast treat. My Beloved is not usually a yogurt fan but even he scarfed up his portion. This was made with fat free yogurt, quite tart, but you could gentle it down by using Greek yogurt and you'd still get that one-sweet-one-tangy bite that I just love. This could easily pass for a light dessert, as well.

The recipe would be very easy, if you wanted the parfait without the intervening pie. Use equal cups full of quarter-inch rhubarb slices (nice part of the stem only and no leaves) and halved strawberries. Toss them with equal amounts of golden brown sugar and white sugar, adding salt and cinnamon mixed, to taste. (For six cups of fruit in the pie, I used one scant cup of the sugars, and added a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. That's equivalent to two small baskets of strawberries and about six or seven stems of rhubarb). If you don't want a whole pie's worth of sauce, you can reduce the proportions accordingly, keeping the balance of flavors.

In a heavy bottomed pot large enough to hold all that, begin cooking on very low flame until the strawberries give up their juice and the rhubarb begins to soften. Keep an eye on it - you don't want the sugars to burn. Cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the sugars and salt have mixed and mingled, and it's all one lovely gmish, then let it cool.

Layer yogurt and sauce in a pretty stemmed glass to show off the colors and serve.