Amaretti and Peaches

In summer nothing speaks so much of the season as those golden, rosy globes, juicy and sweet  - pesche, or peaches. And nothing seems to pair up with these sweet jewels better than amaretti, those almond-flavored cookies - soft or crisp - from the Piemonte region. When I was a girl,  my mother would make desserts with the amaretti di Saronno, almond cookies that are crisp and dry with a hint of the Amaretto liqueur. These were the only kind with which I was familiar. When I met my husband, he argued that amaretti were soft,  light as feathers and slightly chewy. I didn't believe him until I traveled to his side of Italy in Piemonte near Torino and I fell in love with these ubiquitous cookies, the pride of every baker in the region. To taste the soft amaretto cookies is a real treat since they are freshly baked and not easily found outside the area of Acqui Terme, Alba, even Torino. Amaretti and peaches, what a combination! My tastebuds pairing these two were formed from my mother's baked peaches which I would devour one after the other.

Baked Peaches with Amaretto Cookie Filling

Ingredients

4-6 Peaches, washed, cut in half and pitted

4-6 amaretto cookies crushed (not super finely)

1 egg

½ tablespoon sugar (or to taste)

1-2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur (optional)

1 cup whipping cream – whipped and sweetened with a little sugar

Preheat the oven at 350°

1. Wash, cut peaches in half and take out the pit. Gently scoop out the center of the peaches, leaving a 1/4 inch “wall”. Rub them a bit with soft butter. Place them side up on a greased cookie sheet.

2. Finely chop the scooped out pieces and place in a small bowl. Place the amaretti, the cookies, in a food processor and crush them until they are about the size of peas. You can do this with a towel and rolling pin, crushing the cookies until they are the right size.

3. Place them in the bowl with the chopped peaches. Add the egg and sugar to taste. If you like you can add a little amaretto liqueur. Mix together and scoop the mixture back into the hollowed peaches. Add ¼  teaspoon (or just a touch) of butter in each half peach.

4. Bake the peaches for about 45 minutes or until they look cooked through and golden on top. Remove them from the oven and let them cool. Transfer to a platter and refrigerate them for at least an hour. When ready to serve, place the peaches on individual dessert plates.  Top the peaches with a lovely dollop of whipped cream, maybe a sprinkle of crushed amaretti,  and enjoy with a light dessert wine.

These baked peaches freeze well. So you can make extra, freeze them on a cookie sheet. When frozen, place them in a ziplock bag. Take them out when the wind is cold and howling outside and you want to be reminded of the golden days of summer! Defrost and serve them as you would if you had made them that day. Serves 4-6

If you like the pairing of amaretto (the liqueur) and peaches...try a favorite of my husband's, a peach ice cream. The recipe comes from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (1985). I have made this recipe dozens of times, at least once during the summer.

Peach Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

8 ripe medium-sized peaches

3 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

1. Heat the cream and sugar in a medium-size saucepan over low heat just until the sugar dissolves. Let cool completely.

2. Drop the peaches, several at a time, into a large pan of boiling water and blanch for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool. Slip off the skins, cut the peaches in half, and remove the pits.

3. Process 6 of the peaches in a food procesor fitted with a steel blade or a blender until smooth. Add the liqueur and process to combine. Mix the peach puree and cream mixture. Cut the remaining two peaches into 1/4 inch dice and stir into the mixture. Cool the entire mixture in the refrigerator for about an hour before putting in the ice cream maker.

4. Freeze in an ice cream maker, following manufacturer's instructions. Makes 1 quart.

The ice cream is delightful on its own or accompanied with more fresh peaches. If you haven't already tired of amaretto and peaches, try the outstanding new find I made last month, the Peach-Mascarpone Custard Pie with Amaretti Cookie Crumble. What a mouthful! My sons claimed this was the best pie they had eaten in ...years???(!)  This recipe comes via Tasting Table, adapted by Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW's Good Food, Los Angeles. Here's the link http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/la/9157/The_perfect_pie_for_summer.html

And the photo.....

 And lastly, to complete this fantasia of amaretti and peaches, try my last new creation - a fresh peach cake! Sinfully delectable!

Fresh Peach Cake

Here I have adapted Ina Garten’s Fresh Peach Cake recipe (Barefoot Contessa: How Easy is That? 2010) to include an amaretto feel and taste to the cake. I was interested in using almond meal or flour to give the cake a torte-like texture, a little like a chocolate torte my mother makes. Its exclusive use of ground almonds and no flour makes the cake dense and moist, if not a bit crumbly. In this version I keep some of the flour to reduce the crumbliness. I went ahead and tried this variation which turned out to be delicious!

Ingredients

1 stick or ¼ pound of butter

1  ¼ cups sugar

2 extra-large eggs at room temperature

1 cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup almond meal (from Trader Joe’s)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 very large peaches or 3 medium-sized ones, peeled, pitted and sliced

½ cup of sliced almonds (option: soak these a bit in amaretto liqueur)

Preheat the oven to 350° degrees F. Grease a 9-inch non-stick square baking pan.

1. Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Add the almond meal and set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy – about 3-5 minutes at high speed. Reduce the speed of the beaters, then add the eggs one at a time until blended. Add the sour cream and almond extract and mix until the batter is smooth.

3. Spread half the batter in the pan.  Place half the amount of sliced peaches evenly down on the batter . Lightly sprinkle with sugar and a light layer of sliced almonds. Top this with the remaining batter, another layer of peaches, light sprinkle of sugar and almonds.

4. Bake the cake for one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack for about 30 minutes so it won’t fall apart. Serve at room temperature. I sprinkled a light layer of confectioner’s sugar to decorate. Delicious with ice cream - maybe  - being a little over the top- peach ice cream!

One view, crumbs and all!

Eaten by half!

Buon appetito e buone cose!

What Do I Do With This? Romano Beans

"What do I do with this?" is a common question I hear when I circulate among the stalls at the Davis Farmers Market, especially directed towards produce that is unfamiliar or exotic. I often ask the question myself as I eye some of the vegetables used in Asian cooking. Vendors generously offer tips and advice about prepping and cooking.  Sometimes, when a question comes up regarding vegetables commonly used in Italian cooking, I like to offer my own tips and recipes. Market-goers are open to new ideas; it is so much fun to see their expressions of surprise and gratitude. So I'm starting a series in which I will focus on my findings at the market, usually about produce whose preparations are not commonly known, but come from the heart of my background growing up in Italy with a mother who is a fabulous cook.

This week I finally found Romano beans, you know - those flat, green beans with a gnarly look!

I love these beans and I wait for them all year long! This year they have taken  a while to come to market. When I asked one of favorite vendors why the wait, she said the rabbits kept nibbling away at them. So much for competition! So what do you do with them? A number of different preparations are possible, mostly simple, from a salad with red onions, cranberry beans, and vinaigrette to a minestrone. Let me show you one of my favorite ways  - one preparation my mother used to make when I was a girl. It reminds me of lazy summer luncheons under the olive tree at our beachfront summer villa in Terracina.

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 lbs. green beans ( you could really use any - even the asparagus beans)
1 Cup onion - or one small onion - diced
1 8 oz. can diced tomatoes or 3 fresh and peeled tomatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1  Tablespoon butter
8 oz. pancetta or guanciale (optional)
1 7 oz. can tuna, preferably the Italian bran, drained (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the beans and cut them into 1 inch pieces. In a saucepan or skillet with a one inch border, add the oil and the butter. Once it sizzles, add the onion and saute' until tender and slightly golden. If you are choosing to put pancetta or guanciale, add it at this time and stir until fragrant. Add the beans and stir again until blended. Cook for about a minute or two, then add the tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add approximately a cup of water so that the beans remain  slightly submerged as in the photo below.

Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the beans are tender. You have to add more water if the mixture looks a bit dry and the beans aren't quite cooked through. At this point, it's done. But here's the twist! Add a can of tuna (make sure you drain it!) into the mixture while it is still warm. This is the part of the dish I like so much. The tuna makes it tangy and oh so yummy! I usually make this dish without the pancetta; I either like it with tuna or simply vegetarian. Experiment with whatever option - all are excellent! We usually serve this as a side dish or as a salad, cold on a hot summer day (my favorite). The favors blend and get better the next day or the next if there is any left! It keeps well for about a week. Serves 5-6

Delicious with the tuna!

Zucchini Corn Pancakes

 

Zucchini Corn Pancakes

As the zucchini plants continue to produce abundantly, last night I made zucchini corn pancakes to take care of a zucchini that had grown a bit too large. It was quick to make and delicious!

Ingredients:

1 large zucchini or the equivalent of 4 small ones 

1 onion

1 ear of corn (or substitute with 1 cup of frozen)

½ red pepper

3 eggs beaten

½ cup flour

¼ cup of milk

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

I-2 tablespoons canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

1.Shred the zucchini in the food processor.  My zucchini was such a big guy that I had food processor bowl was full. Slice the onion thinly and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, heat a nonstick pan and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the onions and stir until they have gained a little color about five minutes. Add the zucchini. At first the pan is going to seem very crowded. Never mind, it will shrink quickly. Salt and pepper the mixture and keep stirring until the zucchini and onions have cooked down, about 5 minutes.

3. Take the ear of corn, husk it and remove the kernels. You should have about one cup. Dice the red pepper to the similar size as the corn kernels. Heat a small saucepan, then add a little butter, followed by the red pepper. Stir fry it quickly, then add the corn and season the mixture. The mixture should not cook long, otherwise the corn will get tough. After 2 minutes, take off the flame and cool slightly.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, the milk, flour, and baking powder. To this add the zucchini and the corn mixtures. Stir to blend.

5. Heat a griddle or frying pan, and then grease it with a little canola oil. With a ladle, measure about ½ cup – more or less – of the batter, just like you would when making pancakes, and drop it onto the heated surface. When the edges seem a bit dry, turn the pancake over and cook briefly until a little puffed in the center. Remove to a plate. Continue making the rest of the pancakes. You may have to grease the griddle  again if needed.

6. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and optional, a dusting of julienned basil. A good dish to serve as an antipasto or summer entree and salad. Delicious with a crisp white wine. 

Serves 4.