This weekend's FoodScience! entry has very little food science in it, I'm afraid. But before you grab the pitchforks, it's a deconstruction of a popular dish! Surely that can save me, right? Right?

So, I've been thinking for a while about how to put a twist on nachos. My first thought was to invert it somehow; a set of cheese and tomato crisps covered with a nacho purée, for example. But it seemed a bit too much effort for something that would end up tasting vastly inferior to real nachos. Eventually, I hit on the idea of changing the flavour aspect of nachos: switching them from savoury to sweet. A fruit salsa on top of tortilla chips, perhaps. But there was something lacking. The chips would still be too savoury for my tastes.

(I think it's fair to say I have a sweet tooth. I have appalled friends by how much sugar I can eat in a single setting)

Yesterday, I had a breakthrough; I got a copy of Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts in the post. After I managed to prise it from my sister's clutches (a somewhat difficult task, even though she only has the use of one hand. The love of chocolate is strong in her), I had a brief flick-through. It's got some spectacular recipes, but what caught my eye was "Suddenly Last Summer", which is constructed from peaches sautéed in wine and honey, served on a bed of olive oil filo crisps.

Aha!

I scampered off to Tesco in order to get some fruit. It was time for sweet nachos.

The olive oil filo crisps are actually a minimal version of baklava. Which means I did two recipes on my to-do list at the same time. Hurrah! Anyway, the ingredients:

Tortilla Crisps

• 8 sheets of filo pastry
• 1 pack of pistachio nuts (say around a cup or so)
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons demerara sugar

Oven to 180°C! Shell the pistachio nuts and grind them down. They deserve it. Stir the sugar, cinnamon, and salt intto the ground nuts, and give the mixture another pulse or two in the food processor. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and brush with olive oil. Put a sheet of filo pastry on top of the paper, brush that with more olive oil, and then sprinkle some of the nut mixture over the top (you'll need sixteen sprinkles, so divide accordingly!). Put another sheet of pastry on top and repeat the process. Then again. And one more time. So that's four sheets of filo pastry, and the top should have a sprinkling of the nut/sugar/cinnamon/salt mixture.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes. While that's cooking, repeat the process with another four layers of filo (if you want, you can make even more, but I think two sets is enough. Trust me). When they're done, take the sheet out and leave to cool for a bit.

Next! The fruit. Now, I may have missed a trick here; perhaps the syrup should have been red. I'll rectify that next time. Again, I borrowed from Demolition Desserts (I really wanted to make something from it, and as I'm not going to be around much this weekend, it would be my only chance for a week), making a black pepper-tarragon syrup.

Salsa

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup liquid glucose
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• Lots of fruit

Bring the water, sugar, and corn syrup to the boil. Simmer for a minute, then take off the boil and add the peppercorns and tarragon. Leave for ten minutes before straining the syrup out into a jug. Meanwhile, take your fruit (I used strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries), and sautée them for a minute or two in a pan with butter, sugar and a little Cointreau. Oh yes.

So, we have our salsa. And we have our tortilla crisps. Yes, crisps. But, the special thing about nachos, especially nachos bought at, say, sporting events, is the horrific orange cheese substance that is slathered over the top. Originally, I thought about a sweet mascarpone sauce, but Stacie pointed out that coloured white chocolate would also work. As I still had half a vial of orange food colouring and some white chocolate, it seemed the best way to go.

Cheese Topping

• 150g white chocolate (use 300g if you want lots!)
• E102 food powder (makes children hyperactive, remember)

Melt the chocolate in either a double boiler or the microwave, and mix in the orange powder until it gets rather orange.

Then, it's quite simple! Break up the filo sheets into shards, place them on a plate, put fruit on top, pour on some of the syrup, cover it all with the orange chocolate, and serve!

Remember to book your diabetes test in the morning...