It’s easy to pigeonhole herbs. Rosemary goes with lamb, sage goes with pork, dill with salmon, basil with tomatoes. While, yes, they do go with those things – and wonderfully – they also make for loads of other, less expected, combinations to thrill the tastebuds.

A few years ago, I made a simple salad with crisp apples and lots of soft, fresh tarragon, dressing the whole lot with peppery olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and black pepper. I’d never paired apples with tarragon and was astounded by their delicate harmony. It made me think a little more about how I use herbs in my cooking and I began to tinker with combinations I hadn’t explored before. I would serve roast ham with lovage sauce and raw oysters with sweet cicely. I’d barbecue fish on fennel branches until everything caught fire. I’d infuse custards with bay leaves or lavender for ice-creams and creme brulees.

I grow a few perennial herbs in the garden – sage, rosemary and thyme are three favourites that I put to work a lot. Herbs elevate fruit, defining and giving it a different expression. Sage goes with almost anything. This summer I’ve been putting it with peaches cooked on a barbecue with black pepper and olive oil. These I served with fresh goat’s curd and, on another occasion, charred squid. Sage’s earthy, bitter perfume works amazingly with the sweet fruit.

Today, we have three recipes for fruit with herbs, all hovering between sweet and savoury most satisfyingly. Pears and pork are happy partners in crime, and their latest double act in my kitchen is a warming autumnal roast bridged by rosemary, that strong, resinous and elegant herb, which binds the pears to the bacon magically. For me this is pretty much an all in one supper. You could embellish it, perhaps, with some crumbled blue cheese or tumble through some bitter chicory leaves, but it doesn’t need much.

Sage and apples is not an entirely unheard-of pairing – who doesn’t love sagey apple sauce alongside roast pork? Here, the combination manifests itself as a pudding. Baked apples with lemon, sugar (so far, so traditional), and generous handfuls of sage stuffed in too, adding a flavour that almost haunts the fruit and all the sweet, buttery cooking juices.

I’ve had a bit of a wild obsession with thyme since I started cooking at River Cottage many years ago. The garden was always full of different varieties, which I would pick in the morning before beginning work in the kitchen. I used this woody perfumed plant in almost everything I cooked, and I’m sure it nearly always improved it.

Just like the other herbs I’ve mentioned, thyme is so good with fruit. I like to add it to a simmering pan of blackcurrants when I make a cordial. Although it’s subtle when you drink a glass, the thyme’s notes are unmistakable. It grounds the dizzy sugar of the raspberries and late summer sweetness of blackberries. I use it with lemon and orange when baking, with fresh figs and honey when I’m grazing, or with dried fruit such as dates, prunes or apricots. And, today, with stewed blueberries.

Pears with bacon and rosemary

Serves 4 – 6
4-6 medium ripe pears, quartered and cored
300g large smoked or unsmoked bacon lardons
A small handful of rosemary sprigs
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp runny honey
Salt and black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Lay the pears skin-side down in a roasting tin. Scatter over the bacon and rosemary, trickle everything liberally with olive oil, spoon over the honey, then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2 Bake for 20‑25 minutes, or until the pears are tender and the bacon is golden.

Apples baked with sage, lemon and brown sugar (main picture)

Serves 6
6 dessert apples, whole, with a thin, shallow cut around their meridian
12 tbsp soft brown sugar
100g soft butter
2 lemons, peeled with a veg peeler (no white pith) and thinly sliced
1 small bunch of fresh sage

1 Slice a thin piece off the bottom of each apple, so they sit happily in a roasting tin. Scatter the lemon zest slivers over the top along with the sage leaves, add dabs of butter inbetween, then carefully mound 2 tbsp of sugar on top of each apple.

2 Pour a little splash of water in the base of the tin, then bake the apples at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 25 minutes. Allow the apples to rest for a moment once they’re out of the oven: they will be really hot.

3 Serve the apples with plenty of their buttery, sage spiked sauce. They are amazing with cream or ice-cream.

Blueberries with thyme

I really like this simple compote spooned over vanilla ice-cream or alongside a pannacotta or custard tart. It makes a wonderful topping for a cheesecake – particularly one that’s been made with goat’s cheese.

Serves 4-6
400g blueberries, whole
Several sprigs of fresh thyme or lemon thyme
Juice of 1 lemon
3-4 tbsp caster sugar

1 Put the berries, thyme, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and set over a low heat. Bring the fruit up to the gentlest of simmers, then cook for about 20 minutes, taking care not to stir too much so that the berries hold as much of their shape as possible.

2 Once the mixture is tender and bubbling, take off the heat, adjust the sweetness, if it needs it, and serve.

• Gill Meller is a chef, food writer, stylist, cookery teacher and the former head chef at River Cottage in Devon. His first book, Gather (Quadrille) is out in September. @gillmeller