Chilled Peaches in Wine

I am sitting on my back porch typing this post on a very pleasant first day of summer afternoon.  A mama bird sitting in her nest (that she built in my gutter!) is giving me the stink eye as I assure her I won’t hurt her or her hatchlings.  

The simple pleasures of nature. 

This past week we had dinner at Architect's house and she made Caprese Lasagna from Rachel Ray.  You can find the recipe here.  Architect modified it a bit…she used a can of the San Marzano tomatoes rather than the fresh tomatoes…she heated olive oil then added 2 cloves chopped garlic and the canned tomatoes.  She did not add the garlic to the white sauce since she added some to the tomatoes.  Also, she mentioned that she thought the white sauce was a bit runny and said the next time, she’ll add less milk. 

We protested her assertion of “runny”…..this lasagna was delicious…not too heavy and the perfect dish to satisfy a warm-weather pasta craving.  

Although, I always have a hankering for pasta, regardless of the temperature.

So when we have dinner at Architect’s house, it’s my turn to bring dessert.  It was too hot to bake last week and I wanted to bring something light, like fruit.  I just finished a book, Delancey, by one of my favorite food bloggers, Molly Wizenberg (her blog is called Orangette).  It’s the memoir of her and her husband’s adventures opening a New York-style pizza restaurant in Seattle, WA.  The restaurant’s name, Delancey, was inspired by the subway stop in NYC.

Anyway, along with her humorous, touching and sometimes self-revealing, candor-filled stories, this delectable tale includes recipes of things other than the pizza served at the restaurant, including this recipe for Chilled Peaches in Wine.

This was one of the maiden-voyage desserts at Delancey.   It screams for a crisp, lineny white wine and the freshest, sweetest peaches you can find.  After a full day of marinating in the refrigerator, this concoction is “wonderfully boozy” and succulently syrupy.   When serving, I added a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt and when the yogurt melted into the wine juice, the most luscious and creamy sauce resulted….a serendipitous encounter indeed! 

Chilled Peaches in Wine

by:  Molly Wizenberg

4 medium peaches, ripe

2 tablespoons of sugar, or more to taste

2 cups of crisp, dry white or rose wine

A pint of vanilla frozen yogurt

Slice the peaches very thin (at least 12 slices per peach).  Combine the peaches and sugar in a large storage container and toss gently to mix.  Add the wine and toss again, adjusting the mixture for sweetness.  Put the lid on the container and store in the refrigerator overnight, but not more than 24 hours.  

Serve the peaches, very cold (straight from the refrigerator) in short, wide glasses.  Ladle some of the wine on top and a scoop of frozen yogurt.  Eat the peaches then drink the creamy syrup.  

So easy and so incredibly good.  Aren't these peaches gorgeous!?!?