Today is the last day of Summer. I suppose this warrants my recent panic to buy up as much fresh produce as possible. It happens every year - suddenly it seems as though I didn’t honor the season quite enough, that there really could have been a few more picnics or pints of blueberries or glasses of ginger-laced lemonade gulped down on hazy nights . This year was better than most, though. The amount of peaches we received in our boxes from Penn’s Corner was extraordinary, and I might almost be satisfied enough to last until next year.
I decided to roast the most recent (and final) batch of white peaches, a very good treatment for those that may be a bit too mushy to eat out of hand. Just like with the tomatoes, roasting does a lovely job on peaches, concentrating their flavor and transforming them into elegant comfort food. Peaches in red wine is a classic combination, so I took the opportunity to try out David Lebovitz’s Red Wine Syrup. I’m here to say that this may be an even better use of leftover wine than the old ice-cube-tray trick - the flavor is intense and sweet, but not boozy, and you can add all sorts of spices or fruit peel to liven it up. I couldn’t resist trying it out on ricotta, which became nothing short of luxurious after happily soaking up the syrup.
So if you happen to find yourself with a few errant peaches, plums, nectarines, or, gosh, I bet fresh figs would be outrageous with the syrup, let them take leave of summer in style. A quick kiss of heat with ruby trimming seems a fitting prelude to the equinox, don’t you think?
Roasted Peaches with Ricotta and Red Wine Syrup
Serves 3-4
4 small peaches
1/4 cup mild honey
about 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup ricotta, room temperature
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Pit peaches and place them cut side up in a shallow baking dish. Dot the inside of each peach half with a small (half-teaspoon size) nugget of butter. Drizzle with honey. Bake for 25 minutes or until tender and fragrant.
Red Wine Syrup
Adapted from David Lebovitz
1 cup red wine
6 tablespoons sugar
4-5 whole cloves
In a small, non-reactive skillet, cook the red wine and sugar until bubbles thicken and the syrup is reduced by half. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl.
To Serve
Spoon about 1/4 cup ricotta on a small plate for each person. Top with 2-3 peach halves and drizzle with red wine syrup. Serve warm.
