This is the kind of recipe I love sharing, one of those little triumphs in the kitchen that can really take the edge off a crappy day. Not just the relaxation and distraction of cooking and creating (I love spending time in the kitchen), but the “phoenix from the ashes moment” of having created something really very nice out of leftovers (and bits and things).

I happened to have rather more cherries than I needed, I new I’d have a busy week ahead, and I could just imagine them, the following Saturday, in the same bowl on the kitchen table, with a giant bloom of mould growing on them. So I had a look around the kitchen this is what I found: mascarpone cheese, a roll of flaky pastry, and a lemon.

Well pastry screams PIE (and smiles!) so I hunted around for a tart tin but the only thing I could find was this dingy sized pyrex dish which would have made a half decent glass bottomed boat! Kept looking . . . muffin tray? Maybe, could make 12 mini pies . . . kept looking and found a rather dinky pyrex dish, not exactly the tart tin I was looking for but about the right size, the sides were too high but, meh, yeah, I reckon it’d do, so I rolled with it.

Found some sugar for a stock syrup, and an egg . . . right ready for action!