Pesche Ripiene (Stuffed Peaches)
This is simply one of the most wonderful summer desserts of all time: nothing more than baked halved peaches stuffed with crushed amaretti biscuits, eggs and sugar. You can find this Piedmont classic in all of Italy’s most important historic cookbooks, from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well to Ada Boni’s Talismano della Felicità.
Artusi calls for a filling of savoiardi biscuits with freshly pounded almond meal (useful to try if you don’t have amaretti biscuits). Boni mentions they can be served warm or cold, while De Giacomi and Lodi’s Langhe cookbook, Nonna Genia, includes cocoa powder and insists they must be served warm or tepid, never cold. I personally love the addition of chocolate to the almond and peach combination, but rather than put it in the filling I like a little dark chocolate grated on top.
Ingredients 6
7 yellow peaches, medium-sized, see note
1 tbsp sugar, optional; see note
5 amaretti biscuits, crushed
1 egg yolk
1 ‒ 2 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing
dark chocolate, shaved, to serve, optional
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Method 5
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Rinse and pat dry the . Cut six of the peaches in half, removing the pits and scooping out some extra pulp from each half to make room for the filling. Finely chop this extra pulp and place in a small mixing bowl.
Peel and pit the last , then mash or finely chop (depending on how tender the flesh is) the fruit and add it to the bowl, along with the (if using), the crushed and the , and combine well.
Place the peach halves, face up, in a well-buttered baking dish large enough to fit the twelve halves in a single layer. Fill the with the amaretti mixture and top each with a dot of . Bake until the peaches are cooked through, oozing a pretty coloured juice and nicely browned on top, about 40 minutes.
Serve warm or tepid, with some shaved chocolate over the top if you like.
Emiko Davies' tips
Use ripe but not overly mature peaches here; the latter can lose their shape while cooking and become too soft. If using particularly sweet peaches and good-quality amaretti, you may find you can get away with not using sugar in this recipe.
