Eating with the seasons {Caramelized peaches}
I won’t deny that I could have taken my Italian language lessons more seriously. And in retrospect, man do I really wish I had risen to the occasion. But that is a whole other story.
However, my foodie Italian is pretty good and I fell deeply in love with reading + ordering from Italian menus, and read cookbooks, recipes and such in Italian to practice.
I also fell in love with eating with the seasons- something Italy does extremely well that we could all learn from. The markets are constantly changing, depending on what is in season- and it is always a joy to walk through the rainbow colored stalls and buy what is fresh in that exact moment.
While living in Italy, I quickly learned to look forward to each mini season- the short time where the arancia rossa from Sicily (blood oranges) would show up in the market was one of my favorites. I also love when the tiny purple and green carciofini (artichokes) arrive.
During summer the stone fruits spill out of baskets, each one lovelier than the next. Albicocce, nettarine and pesche- (apricots, nectarines and peaches) smelling of the sun, tempt me with a fruity flowery scent that is intoxicating.
If they last 1 day in my kitchen, it is a miracle. And when that happens I either hide in the kitchen with a paring knife and eat them right off the seed, slip them into a salad with a lot of torn basil, or make this.
First grilled with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. Flopped over some plain greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey and a handful of chopped pistachios.
There are hundreds of ways to enjoy peaches, and this is just one. Not really a recipe, and easily adapted to other stone fruits and eaten with yogurt for breakfast, on top of a bowl of oatmeal or all by themselves. They also make a delicious ice cream topping.
Mixed with the greek yogurt and pistachios it is a wonderful mix of hot and cold, sweet and tart, creamy and crunchy. A delicious quick breakfast. (or dessert…)
- 4 Peaches, cut in half and seed taken out
- 2 T unsalted butter
- Raw brown or turbinado sugar
- Ground cinnamon
- Greek Yogurt
- Honey
- Shelled and chopped pistachios
- Place butter into a skillet or grill pan, melt over medium high heat.
- Put sugar + cinnamon on a small flat plate. (mix together with spoon)
- Lay peaches, face down on cinnamon sugar mix to coat the inside edge, or sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of peach halves.
- Place coated peaches face down on the buttered grill pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Adjust heat if necessary- you want the butter and cinnamon sugar to make a lovely caramelization on the face of the peach, but not cook it to death!
- Flip and cook a few more minutes.
- At this point you can broil them face up if you want them a little more brown. Otherwise remove from the grill pan and use immediately or serve room temperature later over plain greek yogurt.
- Drizzle yogurt and peaches with honey and chopped pistachios, and the left over sauce from the pan if there is any. So yummy!
