Passionfruit in Brazil

Asked by Nathaly. Answered on 15th January 2011

Full question

Hello Nigella team! My name is Nathaly, I'm from Brasil. Recently I was given as a gift the book "How to be a domestic goddess" and I decided to do the Passionfruit Curd. When I prepared this recipe, I found it too acid. I remembered that here we have two tipes of this fruit: one called "acid passionfruit" and other "sweet passionfruit". The first one is commonly used to prepare juices, and the other one to eat the fruit in natura. I would like to know which one Nigella recommend to use in her recipe. Thank you!

Our answer

The passion fruit used by Nigella in her recipes is the purple-skinned type which would be the sweeter type that you would normally eat, and not the yellow-skinned type that you would use for juice. In Brazil you are likely to find them in several stores, in Australia and the Uk they are available in many supermarkets. In the Us they can be slightly more difficult to source but Whole Foods sometimes carry them or try Asian grocery stores.

When you buy passion fruits look for ones with wrinkly skins as they are actually ripe, fragrant and ready to use when they look slightly shrivelled. If they have fairly taught skins they are not yet fully ripe however they will continue to ripen at home if left in a warm place for a few days.