Grilled plums with wildflower honey and spiced mascarpone are the perfect summer treat.
Summertime makes William Dissen wax poetic.
“The fireflies are lighting up the night as they float across the grass in my backyard, their blinking a reminder to cherish the dog days of summer,” he writes.
“The kids are out of school and we’re trying to find adventures for each week. We move up to higher elevations to escape the heat, hike in the woods, and explore the lakes and streams to cool off in a swimming hole and take respite from humid Southern afternoons.”
That’s how Dissen starts the “Summer” section of his brand new cookbook, Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South.
The chef and owner of the Market Place in Asheville, North Carolina since 2009 and more recently Billy D’s Fried Chicken, Dissen is a titan of the culinary world here in the Southeast. He trained at the Culinary Institute of America — the big dog of culinary schools — and was a 2024 James Beard Awards semifinalist for “Outstanding Restaurant” for the Market Place.
“Being able to showcase that a true farm-to-table and sustainable restaurant can be amongst the best in the country is really meaningful to me and I’m so proud of our team for the hard work we have all put in over the years,” he told Food Fanatic.
(Disclosure: I’m a former James Beard Awards judge.)
Dissen is also a member of the U.S. State Department’s American Chef Corps.
“Being able to travel internationally to showcase the food and culture of The United States is an honor and title that I take very seriously,” Dissen said. “I’m very proud of where I am from and it’s always an honor to represent the U.S.”
Below: Chef William Stark Dissen. All photos by Johnny Autry.
The West Virginia native has contributed to almost a dozen cookbooks, but Thoughtful Cooking is his first.
As soon as I saw these grilled plums with mascarpone cheese and wildflower on the cover, I had to ask him for the recipe.
He kindly obliged.
Like most of today’s best chefs, Dissen is all about using fresh, seasonal ingredients — so it’s no surprise thatThoughtful Cooking is organized by season. Summer has 20 contributions, including iconic tomato sandwiches, his fried chicken recipe, grilled summer squash with blistered tomatoes and chili crisp, and a drool-worthy sockeye salmon crudo.
Dissen may be as excited as we are for the book’s release earlier this week.
“It means a lot to me as I have been working to tell my story through food for years, and to now have the opportunity to put my words and recipes on paper in a book is a dream come true,” he said. “I’m excited for readers to dig in and taste my story through my style of cooking.”
His style isn’t about speed — though this recipe in particular is on the more accessible end — but about a deeper relationship with food and the meditative aspects of cooking. As the intro explains, “Thoughtful Cooking isn’t designed to be convenient and quick, it’s inconvenient in all the right ways; it asks the home cook to be in the moment, to take a breath, and to connect.”
These grilled plums are a great way to do exactly that. I appreciate the reliance on simple ingredients and straightforward techniques that create something greater than the sum of its parts. And truth be told, I’m a sucker for dessert.
“Sometimes the best desserts are the simplest,” Dissen writes in the recipe headnote in Thoughtful Cooking. “Since you’ve already got your grill fired up this summer, why not make a casual dessert that everyone is sure to love? And what’s even better is that you can whip up this recipe in no time at all.
“Stone fruit was made for the grill,” he continues. “Charring sweet, ripe stone fruit like plums or peaches really sets off their flavor. Top each plum with a spoonful of wildflower honey, a dollop of spiced mascarpone, and some crunchy hazelnuts and you’re ready to look like a star when you bring this dessert to the table.”
Speaking of peaches — I think we’re more used to seeing grilled peach recipes, which is another reason I appreciate that Dissen calls for plums. (Note: we also like grilling pineapple.)
The recipe will have you turning the plums 90 degrees to create cross hatching grill marks — in other words, you’re not flipping these plums and grilling them on the skin side! Rookie mistake. This process will also “create more caramelization over a larger surface area on the items being cooked,” Dissen told me.
If you can’t find lemon balm, Dissen said mint or lemon verbena will work just fine as a substitute.
Our thanks to William Stark Dissen for letting us share this recipe from his book, Thoughtful Cooking, published by Countryman Press.
Grilled Plums with Spiced Mascarpone Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mascarpone Cheese room temperature
- 1/4 cup Heavy Cream room temperature
- 5 tablespoons Wildflower Honey
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Sumac
- 1/4 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 4 Black Plums cut in half and pitted
- 2 tablespoons Canola Oil
- 1/4 cup Toasted Hazelnuts finely chopped
- 1/2 bunch Lemon Balm or sub mint or lemon verbena
Instructions
- Place the mascarpone in a small bowl, add the heavy cream a little at a time, and slowly whisk to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of the honey, the sumac, black pepper, cloves, and salt and gently whisk to combine. Set aside until ready to use.
- Heat a grill (or grill pan) over high heat.
- Place the plums and the oil in a small bowl and toss to combine. Place the plums onto the grill and cook until they have golden brown grill marks, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the plums 90 degrees and grill for another 2 minutes.
- Divide the plums among four plates and drizzle with the remaining ¼ cup of wildflower honey. Place a dollop of the mascarpone on each plum, sprinkle on the hazelnuts and lemon balm, and serve immediately.