When entertaining friends and family in Michigan this summer, I have notoriously procrastinated in making dessert until I'm down to the wire. Sweet is not typically my forte, which is why I keep my pal and "Chew" co-host Carla Hall around during the peak of cherry season here on Lake Michigan. Nothing beats her tart Montmorency cherry hand pies. However, with the bounty of ripe summer berries the area has to offer, a sweet berrylicious dessert is never hard to pull off in a bind. My cherry obsession was last week, and this week my Ciambella with Summer Berry Compote has reclaimed my heart.

Ciambella is an Italian cake in the shape of a ring. However, in texture, density and flavor it's more comparable to a cookie. Incredibly difficult to ruin, this dessert is ideal for first-time bakers, as most of the ingredients are tossed into a food processor and left to their simplicity. The beauty of ciambella is its rustic aesthetic appeal. In other words, you can toss your dough on a cookie sheet and not lay eyes on it until it's ready.

If your ciambella does not come out of the oven perfectly smooth, you can tell your guests that it has been prepared this way for centuries. In fact, there is an Italian proverb, "Not all ciambelle have a hole" -- meaning that even when you do things well, you don't always get perfect results. That alone makes this one of my favorite desserts to prepare.

Throughout the year I like to pair my ciambelle with various fruit compotes depending on seasonality, such as a red grape compote with caramelized chestnuts in colder months. In fact, I use seasonal fruit compote as a condiment for anything from a cheese course to bollito misto (the traditional Bolognese boiled meat dish) to dessert. It's also an excellent ingredient to spruce up tomorrow's sandwich and makes for a jazzy mid-afternoon snack if you have a teaspoon in hand.

Ciambella with Summer Berry Compote

Makes 4 servings.

For the compote:

1 pint blueberries

1 pint blackberries

1 pint raspberries

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