Ingredients :

• Canned pineapple with its juice — Whatever you do, don’t drain it — the juice serves as the liquid base to activate the pudding and flavor the whole mix. Get chunks rather than slices; they are easier to eat with a spoon and incorporate better into the bowl.
• Instant vanilla pudding — The powder is sprinkled directly onto the fruit without being prepared with milk — that’s the whole point. It drinks up the fruit juices and creates a natural glaze as it rests. Make sure to get the ‘instant’ version, not the one that requires cooking.
• Purple grapes — Cut them in half. This is the only slightly repetitive task in the recipe, but it’s really useful: a whole grape rolls around the bowl, resists the spoon, and doesn’t hold the glaze well. Cut, it opens up, releases a little juice, and integrates perfectly. Use Muscat if you find them, otherwise standard red grapes work great.
• Bananas — Ripe but firm. Not green, not spotted with brown. Too ripe, and they melt in the bowl making the texture mushy. If you prepare the salad the day before, add the bananas the same day — they don’t hold up as well as other fruits in prolonged contact with pineapple juice.