How to make honey and thyme apricots with whipped ricotta and mascarpone

(Julia Platt Leonard)

Apricots can promise a lot but deliver little. It’s not their fault.

Too often they’re picked too early so they look good but taste either hard or woolly. Choosing apricots can be a bit of fruit roulette.

To up the odds in your favour, go for ones that have that honeyed glow of orange flecked with pinky-red. Pick them up and the skin should be smooth but the flesh slightly yielding.