Last week, I bought a kilo of peaches in Bagni di Lucca. Last night I still had over half of them and I thought.. mmmm pie. And then I said, ugh… I hate making pie crust. And my pie crust maker friends aren’t here… What to do with all these peaches? David Lebovitz saves the day with his timely post, Easy Jam Tart. The cake part of this is notable in that it doesn’t get rolled out, and you cream the butter instead of cutting it into the flour. And, it has polenta in it. AND, David suggests adding fresh rosemary! Well, I can definitely get on board with that. But jam tarts always seem like a fake dessert to me. Jam??? Come on folks… Well, as it so happens, I had bought a jar of 100% fruit wild berry jam for Isabella. She’s not going to finish it in a week, so I’ll use some on the tart and top it with peaches. The dough turned out much wetter than David described… I used exactly the right amount of butter, in fact a little less… I used exactly the right amount of flour and corn meal, and even used small eggs — and even just the yolk of one, just like he calls for. Oh well. The rosemary from our courtyard was a divine addition… oh, maybe i put a tad too much amaretto in it though… hmmm. It hardened up fine in the fridge and came out a few hours later ready to be pushed into the tart pan. Another suggestion was almonds… frangipane. What is that? I looked up a recipe, it looked good, so I made up something approximating frangipane: some finely chopped almonds, some powdered sugar, some sicilian almondmilk (mandorlata), and an egg. Well now, this looks like that yummy almond filling you find in bear claws and many german pastries. Eccellente.
I debated drizzling saba on top of it all, especially since I’m not a fan of big sugar crystals on my food, as David calls for. Bella suggested we use that for after its cooked, as a cooling contrast. I had thought the same thing when I debated pouring it on the peaches as well. Also, a dab of mascarpone would go really well too…
First though, dinner. Last week’s gnocchi with tonight’s homemade pesto: I chopped up a bowl full of basil leaves that Bella gathered from the courtyard. Chopped in several cloves of garlic, some of the chopped almonds (shh…) and a chunk of parmesan. YUM. Covered it with olive oil and let it sit.
For my salad, I’m using up the beet in this dressing creation: shredded beet, sage, almonds, garlic, gorgonzola, balsamic vinegar, pepper and some peaches. Yeah, this menu has a lof the foods I crave: almonds & peaches; sage, rosemary & basil; polenta; gorgonzola.
Tomorrow, we are getting up at 9 am and walking down the hill to go swimming before the crowds show up. Laps and laps, and then back up the hill!
