After lunch

Italian coffee and candied watermelon made by LoJ. I used a similar method to make candied pumpkin for panforte. Here's the recipe, especially for dis...dat...d'udda

Cut a large slice of watermelon or pumkin and remove the seeds from the centre.
Cut in 5 mm slices, sprinkle well with salt and leave in a colander to drain for a couple of days, turning them occasionally.
Wash in water to remove salt. Put the slices with their weight of sugar (no water) in a pan, stir and leave for at least 12 hours.
Bring to the boil in the juice that's come out of the fruit and simmer for 10 minutes.
Leave the whole pan for another 12 hours.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the fruit is transparent and soft (about half an hour).
Leave it in the pan for another 12 to 24 hours. Remove pieces and lay on greaseproof paper that's been dusted with icing sugar. Dust the pieces with icing sugar.
Put in a very low oven, about 60 C, until dry. You can put the oven on for an hour or so, leave till the next day and then put the oven on again. Repeat until the fruit pieces are dry. Cool and store in an airtight container.

It seems complicated and time-consuming, but it's worth it! For the panforte I didn't wait till the pieces were dry because they were going into a cake mix.