Toasted Apricot Salad

A three-ingredient broiled fruit salad from the era when marshmallow and mayonnaise were both considered salad ingredients. The whole thing takes about five minutes, and nearly all of the risk is in the last two.

• The apricotsAlmost certainly canned apricot halves, drained well; the recipe gives no syrup or sugar, and "halves" is how canned fruit was sold. If using canned, blot them dry or the syrup will scorch and stick to the pan.
• Watch the broiler, not the clockMarshmallows go from pale to black in well under a minute. Keep the pan 4–5 inches from the element and stand at the oven door; "light brown" is the whole instruction and it arrives fast.
• Line the panMelted marshmallow welds itself to bare metal. Parchment or foil makes the difference between lifting the apricots out intact and scraping them off.
• Marshmallow sizeOne marshmallow per apricot half, set in the hollow over the nuts; the count in the recipe implies full-size sweets rather than miniatures.
• PistachiosChop them coarsely and use raw, unsalted nuts. They sit under the marshmallow and toast in its shelter; salted cocktail pistachios will read as harsh against the sweet fruit.
• Assemble at the table's edgeThe lettuce goes on the plate cold and the apricots go on hot, immediately. Build the plates while the pan is under the broiler, or the greens collapse and the marshmallow sets to a rubbery cap.
• The mayonnaiseModern jarred mayonnaise can read as sharp against the sweetened fruit. A spoonful thinned with a little of the apricot syrup, or half mayonnaise and half whipped cream, softens it; period fruit-salad dressings were often lightened this way.
• YieldSix halves serve three as a salad course, or six if each plate gets one as a garnish alongside something else. It does not hold or reheat.