Baked Stuffed Peaches with Amaretti and Cocoa

La storia di questo piatto

Peaches, almond-bitter amaretti and a veil of cocoa share one skin, and the whole of an Italian summer seems to sit inside it. It is the sweetness of a family table, where ripe fruit is never wasted but turned into something a little festive.

Ingredienti

• 4 pieces Ripe peaches
• 100 g Dry amaretti biscuits
• 15 g Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 50 g Softened butter
• 30 g Granulated sugar
• 1 piece Egg yolk
• 120 ml Dry white wine
• 20 g Honey
• 30 g Pine nuts (optional)

Preparazione

1. Wash the peaches, pat them dry and cut them in half along the natural groove. Remove the pit, using a small knife if it does not come away on its own. With a teaspoon, scoop out the flesh from the centre of each half, leaving a border of about 1 cm, and set the flesh aside for the filling.
2. Finely crush the amaretti with a knife or by pressing them in a clean cloth. In a bowl, work the softened butter (reserve one knob for the baking dish) with the sugar, cocoa and egg yolk until you have a smooth, lump-free cream. Add the crushed amaretti, the chopped peach flesh and the pine nuts, if using. Mix until you obtain a thick, moist filling.
3. Butter the baking dish with the reserved knob of butter. Fill each peach half with the mixture, forming a small mound in the centre, and arrange them in the dish without overlapping.
4. Pour the white wine into the bottom of the dish, around the peaches and not over the filling. Drizzle a little honey over the filling of each half. Bake in a preheated conventional oven at 180 °C for 30-35 minutes, until the filling is golden at the edges and the flesh is tender. Halfway through baking, spoon the juices that have formed at the bottom over the peaches.
5. Remove the dish from the oven and let the peaches rest for a few minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the juices left in the bottom of the dish.