Hurry: A recipe for the apricot’s fleeting season

Fresh apricots: They’re here one minute, and gone the next. The striking brevity of their season — from the end of April until the start of July — is because they are easily perishable and don’t take well to prolonged cold storage.

So get them while you can. The best ones to buy are those with a uniform golden orange color and no traces of green. Look for apricots with a deep orange hue and a red blush. If they are unripe, leave them in a covered fruit bowl and refrigerate as soon as they ripen.

Apricots are a wonderful source of beta carotene, or provitamin A, the B vitamins niacin, panthothenic and folic acids, and the minerals copper, cobalt and organic iron. Their low glycemic level makes them good fruits for diabetics as well.

There are several options for use — beginning, of course, with twisting them open and eating them fresh. I’m not a big fan of homemade jams, which require almost hideous amounts of sugar,  and instead prefer to use apricots in their fresh state whenever possible. Sometimes I’ll stuff the halves with a tabouli-like salad, or a sweet/savory cream cheese, and other times I’ll puree them to make a fresh sauce. They also make a surprisingly good addition to salads, as in the recipe that follows.

Chicken and apricot pasta salad with an apricot-basil sauce

• 4 cups cooked fusilli pasta
• 6 fresh (but not mushy) apricots, cut into quarters
• 1 whole chicken breast, cooked, cooled and sliced
• 2 green onions, cut lengthwise into 5 cm strips
• 1 red pepper, cut into matchsticks
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dry

Apricot-basil sauce

• 2 fresh ripe apricots, pitted
• 2 tablespoons white wine or rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey, agave or golden cane sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil, shredded

1. Cook and drain the pasta. Quickly rinse under cool water and drain well. Add just a touch of olive oil to prevent sticking. Place in a large bowl.
2. Add the sliced chicken, green onion, red pepper and finally the apricots. Mix gently.
3. For the sauce, place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. With the machine running, add the olive oil gradually and process until thickened. Stir in the basil. Pour half the sauce over the salad, and pass the rest separately.

NOTE: The best way to cook the chicken is to season the breast with cumin and salt and sear it on both sides in a lightly greased hot pan. Cover the pan tightly, and cook on low heat for 20-25 minutes until done and tender.