What to do with all of these beautiful peaches 🤔🍑
It's peach season, y'all!
Good morning!
It’s one of my very favorite food times of the year: Peaches are here! I hope you have access to excellent peaches. I’m in the north, but I’m fortunate that a small, local grocery store arranges for shipments of Southern peaches every year.
The store markets them as “bathtub peaches” — peaches so juicy you should eat them in the tub. Lol. And they’re not wrong. The peaches have been so good this year, I have them in some form or other at almost every meal.
I’m both a cook and a vegetable gardener, and my tomatoes are ripening right on schedule. I love July. Fresh fruits and vegetables are everywhere!
P.S.: On a non-food note, I’m moving this newsletter to another service. I’ve written more about it at the end below.
The Latest
Tomato Peach Burrata Salad
I think most summer salad lovers wait all spring with maximum anticipation for that first Caprese salad of the season. I do, too, but *this* is the salad that has always had my summer heart.
I like to think of it as a variation on the Caprese salad, only amped up with fresh peaches and burrata (instead of mozzarella). There’s a short stretch where both peaches and tomatoes are ripe and ready for eating. July is salad nirvana!
New this year is the vinaigrette that I made especially for it: A warm bacon, balsamic, fig dressing that’s smoky, tangy, and sweet, and wildly bold and flavorful. The recipe is included with the salad, but I also posted it separately on the blog for convenience.
More Peachy Goodness
Grilled Peaches with Oat Streusel
I’m not much of a sweet-tooth person, especially in the summer when I’m always on the edge overheating and the very last thing I want on my stomach is something heavy and custardy, encased in dough.
But, grilled peaches with ice cream are just the thing. Sweet and fresh and also smoky and deep. Lightened up with a little vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of easy oat streusel (instead of pie crust), it’s the perfect end to a summer meal cooked over an open flame.
Peach Prosciutto Crostini with Whipped Goat Cheese
Have I mentioned yet that peaches are in season? Lol. They’re lining my counter, day in and day out. I have a few new peach recipes coming in hot this month. This one is complete but not up on the blog yet, and I figured, why wait? I can share with y’all right now.
When you’re finished eating your fill of fresh peaches, raw and uncensored, it’s time to explore using them up in other ways. Like this simple, super summery appetizer.
Sweet peaches wrapped in salty prosciutto, nestled on a bed of whipped goat cheese. It’s a lovely side to a summer salad, or a three-bite appetizer for your next cookout.
Ingredients:
4 ounces goat cheese (not crumbles), room temperature
1 ounce cream cheese, room temperature (can substitute Greek yogurt)
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch each salt and black pepper (large pinch with your fingertips)
1 tablespoon honey
extra virgin olive oil (use a high-quality olive oil)
12 slices from a baguette, cut 1/4" thick
2 medium to large peaches, sliced into wedges (you'll need 12 wedges)
6 slices prosciutto, each cut in half lengthwise
Prepare the Whipped Goat Cheese:
Add the cheeses, seasonings and honey to the bowl of a small food processor.
Pulse until roughly blended. Begin a slow drizzle of olive oil through the pour spout, pulsing as you go, until the goat cheese spread is smooth and creamy.
Keep an eye on the bowl, and stop and scrape down whenever needed. You'll use a varying amount of olive oil depending on the creaminess of the goat cheese you're using.
Toast the crostini:
In the air fryer — Preheat your air fryer to 350ºF for 3 minutes. Arrange the bread slices in the basket, leaving a little room in between. You’ll probably need to do them in batches; it goes quickly. Cook them at 350ºF for 3 to 4 minutes. Check them at the 3-minute mark: you want the insides of the slices to be tender and only slightly crisp.
In the oven — Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Arrange the slices on a baking sheet, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye them and start checking them mid bake, to make sure they don’t become too hard and crispy.
Assemble the crostini:
Spread each crostini with a layer of the whipped goat cheese from edge to edge.
Wrap a peach wedge with one of the prosciutto halves. Prosciutto is sticky; it will cling to the peach and to itself without toothpicks.
Place the peach wedge on the crostini and press down to secure it in the goat cheese spread.
Repeat with the remaining peach wedges.
Note: This recipe makes 12 crostinis, but is easy to double. As a shortcut, you can use a prepared cheese spread like Boursin right out of the package.
Adios, Substack
I wanted to let you know that I’m moving this newsletter away from Substack.
I love Substack as a publishing platform, but for newsletter management, it leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, neither of us — you or me — have any real control over your subscription. It’s all or nothing: You subscribe to everything, or you unsubscribe completely.
There are things I would like to do with this newsletter other than just send a recipe dump every week or so, but I’d also like for you to be able to control what you receive. Maybe you’ll like these other new things, and maybe you won’t. Either way, you should be able to opt out of them without leaving altogether.
The Toasted Tuesdays series was a great example where I wish I could have provided a way for you to choose whether you wanted to receive those specific mailings. This move will take care of things like that.
The first newsletter at the new digs will go out in the next week or two — cancer willing, I have to take that day by day, as always.
Meanwhile, there’s nothing you have to do. You might notice a new newsletter design, because I have to start everything from scratch, but I’m hoping there will be no hiccups 🤞. And, of course, you’ll always have full access to your subscription from within the new newsletters going forward.
Speaking of hiccups, I’m so sorry for the linking mess-ups in the last mailing! I could’ve sworn that I had clicked everything before sending it out, but clearly I didn’t. It’s every email sender’s nightmare. But y’all were good sports, and I appreciate it!
Until next time, friends, stay kind 🫶🏻, wear sunscreen 🧴, get all the peaches while you can (they’re so good this year!), and remember that soup is nature’s perfect meal 🍲
Love peaches, unfortunately we had a freeze this last winter after a warm spell and it froze all the stone fruit buds, so we mainly have to rely on imports to Canada this year.
Yes! to peaches!!! When I was little, my uncles would pit, peel, and slice ripe peaches. Then, put in a big jug, and fill with red wine. They would soak all day, and be eaten after dinner, along with the wine. We were allowed 2 slices of peaches, drained! Haha! God bless those old Italians!
We actually have a peach truck that comes to Texas from Georgia during peach season! We are very lucky in that respect. Now if I could only get someone from the North to do an apple truck in the fall! Oh, a girl can dream! Stay well, and be hopeful! God bless!