I have of late been reading Melissa Clark's archived articles from the NY Times. Her voice and tone resonate with my philosophy and style of cooking. There are dozens of pages worth of articles but, somehow, I very luckily stumbled on this little gem of a recipe. You might understand by now that I am not a huge fan of cutting corners or time-saving techniques. I tend to find those types of recipes disappointing, and, in the final review,  not worth making nor eating. Tough, aren't I? I mean, I'm not crazy, I do prefer simpler recipes for everyday meals but enjoy toiling away on a complex one partly because it's all so meditative for me. I tend to lose myself in the tasks, calm down, forget problems, and thoroughly enjoy the process. Ahhh, cooking is so good for you, you get to meditate and then enjoy the fruits of your labour.

This recipe is not only too easy but it is just so delicious, way more delicious than it should be given the little work involved. Due to inertia, laziness and other bad habits, it usually takes me months to post any recipe after preparing the food and even after taking pictures of it. This time though, friends have been asking me for the recipe and urging me to post it after eating this tart. As usual, I could not possibly leave Melissa Clark's recipe alone ... I just had to tweak it enough to conform it to my palate. As you can tell from this post's title, you can use almost any fruit lurking in your fruit bowl. It was spectacular with pears, decadent with bananas and lovely and delicate with figs. It's up to you, use your imagination, tweak as much or as little as you'd like, this recipe is very forgiving. Buen provecho!

Upside-Down Pear (or Banana, or Fig) Tart with Honey and Lemon Thyme, adapted from Melissa Clark's recipe

• Any lovely, intensely fragrant honey: 1/4 cup
  
• Josephine (preferably) or Bosc pears: 4 large or 6 small, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cored
• or
  
• Lady Fingers bananas: 6, peeled and sliced lengthwise
  
• or
  
• Fresh figs: 12 to 15 medium size, washed, tip cut off and sliced lengthwise
  
• Fresh lemon or plain thyme: 6 sprigs (optional) divided into 2 lots. Although the thyme is optional it added an extra dimension to the pear tart
  
• Sugar: 2/3 cup
  
• Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
  
• Eggs: 2 large (about 80 grams each), free-range preferable
  
• Vanilla extract: 1.5 teaspoons, make sure it's natural, vanillin isn't good for you and it stinks
  
• All-purpose (plain) flour: 1 cup
  
• Salt: 1/2 teaspoon, leveled
  
• Unsalted butter:130 grams, melted and cooled. You can use salted butter in which case you need to omit the salt
  
• Double cream or whipping cream, enough to place alongside individual portions
  

1. Preheat oven to 180 C or 350 F. In a 9-inch or 24 cm ovenproof skillet (not nonstick), scatter one lot of thyme springs (if using) and simmer honey until it begins to reduce, caramelise and darken in colour, 6 to 10 minutes. Do not let honey burn; if it starts to darken too rapidly or smell burned, turn off heat.

2. Arrange fruit, close together and cut-side down, in a circular pattern in skillet with stem ends pointing toward center. Simmer over medium heat, turning them from occasionally until they begin to turn golden, about 10 minutes.

3. Flip pears over to their curved side (optional with bananas or fig but they look nicer when the inner side is shown) and scatter with second lot of thyme sprigs, if using.

4. Transfer skillet to oven and roast, uncovered, until very tender, about 25 minutes for pears. This step isn't necessary when using bananas, figs or other softer fruit.

5. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together sugar and lemon zest. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Fold in flour and salt; stir in 1/2 cup butter. Don't overbeat the flour once it's in contact with the eggs and butter as it will toughen the dough. Be gentle with the whisk.

6. When fruit is soft, remove skillet from oven (or not) and discard thyme sprigs. Pour batter on fruit. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cake cool for 30 minutes in pan. Run an offset spatula along edges of pan to loosen cake; carefully invert cake onto a serving platter. Serve tart warm or cooled with double cream or whipped cream.