It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Forget the hard, cold supermarket version of peaches—fragrant, ripe, bruisable fruit is the thing we have been waiting for. Here in New York, higher prices for peaches have raised eyebrows.
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
Let’s get one thing out of the way, first.
Au Naturel
Bellini
The simple and perfect Bellini cocktail can be made classically with peach purée, or deconstructed, with chilled prosecco poured right over slices of the sweetest white peaches the greenmarket has to offer.
Not exactly a drink, not exactly dessert, chilled prosecco poured over a freshly peeled whole white peach is delectably and simply hedonistic.
Chilled Peach Prosecco
To Cacha Peach
Cachaça shaken up with Lillet Blanc, fresh white peach purée, and lime juice blends the funky whiff of sugar cane juice with the refined French infusion and the aromatic sweetness of peach.
My summer-comfort standby is a peach and blueberry cake plumped up with almond flour and accompanied by a cup of morning coffee.
Peach Cake
Blueberry Peach Bread
A close relative to the cake is this sweet loaf I bake on banana bread principles, with the same late summer coupling of blueberries and peaches standing in for bananas.
Little is simpler than a peach crumble where freestone slices are covered with lightly crumbled or grated sweet pastry and popped into an oven until the juice bubbles through the crust.
Poaching peaches gently in white vermouth, white or pink wine, or a simple sugar syrup yields delicately cool fruit which my friend Bevan Christie likes to serve with crushed raspberries (in season now, too) and a very good vanilla ice cream.
Poached Peaches
Grilled Peaches
It was Marcella Hazan who gave me the idea, many years ago, in Marcella’s Italian Kitchen ($19.90 on Amazon), to grill fruit on the cooling fire.
Mascarpone Peaches
I add halved peaches to the grill after cooking dinner and let them cook over the cooling coals. You can use a hot griddle pan (for the all-important stripes) if you don’t have a BBQ.
The summer when I slivered a peach and topped it with torn up basil from my terrace was a happy one because this simple combination led to almost infinite variation from quick pickled...
Peach Salad
...peaches with herbs and burrata to fresh peach salsas chile mint onion and delicious with grilled dark meat fish like bluefish and mackerel or with fire blackened corn on the cob to savory soups
Peach Soup
Peaches are sweet, yes, but the addition of salt reveals new possibilities in the peach personality.
Peach Bruschetta
Peach bruschetta can swing both ways. The sweet: Fresh peach slices on toasted baguette, topped with brown sugar before broiling.
Peach Bruschetta
Makes one large slice, to serve two. In a small bowl mix the ricotta, honey, preserved lemon, and ¼ teaspoon olive oil.