La Festa al Fresco

Roasted yellow peaches with italian meringue topping

The seemingly always on-the-go Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice invited me to join in for La Festa al Fresco — a sort of "potluck event" which requires the token dish to incorporate at least one fresh ingredient of summer. I had the initial idea to do a sort of floating island, or île flottante with an italian meringue-topped roasted peach sitting in a pool of vanilla bean custard sauce, but (and this is a big BUT) we are both on a "sensible" diet this week. We were very bad, NO, we were very, very bad in France so I've skinnied it down a bit by omitting the sauce. The dessert will survive without it.

Putting these together doesn't require much of a written recipe. Halve and pit the peaches, place in a baking dish, lightly drizzle/sprinkle with honey or sugar, dot with a teeniest bit of butter, and roast in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until soft. In the meantime prepare an italian meringue and fold in some chopped pistachios if you like. After the peaches are done, place a mound of meringue over the peaches and return to the hot oven. Bake until the tops are lightly golden.

Note: I prefer using italian-style meringue since it gets "cooked" when you add the hot syrup. This helps to stabilize the whites and I've had success in letting it sit around for awhile if I'm busy messing with something else. Regular meringues will eventually begin to liquefy if not baked immediately.