It's suppose to be summer here in Melbourne, but with the crazy weather patterns of late and in the absence of heat and sunshine the only proof for some that summer is here would be the presence of summer fruit. Summer berries, melons, plums and stone fruit are out in force so even though it's not warm enough to go to the beach we can at least 'pretend' that it is summer by eating accordingly.

Little Miss Hoover loves peaches, bananas, watermelon and is slowly coming around to strawberries. She is still undecided as to whether or not she should add grapes and plums to her repertoire. For a girl who can eat a whole head of broccoli in one sitting, this tendency to dither over some of summer's best offerings seems completely inconsistent with her Hoover profile and tendencies. Mr Fussy on the other hand is a straight kind of apples guy. So in the absence of apples during the summer months he will eat only mangoes and strawberries.




This fruit dance my children play at does my head in, but at the end of the day I am grateful they eat fruit.  Hence, in light of this selective fruit behaviour I thought I might try to dress things up a bit and pull out an old favourite - Baked Peaches with Amaretti biscuits. Of course it went down a treat because I served it with zabaglione. I know... again it makes no sense. If I was to serve it with cream they both would have scrunched up their noses, but cover the blessed peaches in zabaglione and they ask for more!



Baked peaches with Amaretti biscuits and Marsala

Recipe source - Adapted from Sophie Braimbridge 'The Food of Italy' (2000)

I serve the baked peaches with zabaglione, but you could also use a good quality vanilla ice cream or even a dollop of mascarpone. On occasion I have substituted the peaches with fresh apricots and at times have also done a mixture of both.
 

Ingredients

6 ripe peaches

100 grams Amaretti biscuits

A good splash of Marsala

4 tablespoons of ground almonds

2 organic egg yolks

1 tablespoon of sugar

50grams of unsalted butter

Icing sugar to serve


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

2. Carefully halve the peaches with a knife and remove the stones.

3. Blend amaretti biscuits in a food processor and then mix in sugar, marsala, ground almonds and the egg yolks. If it seems a bit dry just add a dash more marsala for good measure.

4. Cover each peach half with the biscuit mixture, ensuring that it is evenly spread.

5. Place peaches in a baking tray or oven proof dish and add little bit of butter on the top of each peach.

6. Bake for about 30 minutes until peaches are tender.

7. Lightly dust the peaches with icing sugar and serve with a generous amount of zabaglione, spoon or two of good quality vanilla ice cream, or rather large dollop of mascarpone.