Slices of cool, fresh nectarines take on surprisingly concentrated flavors when bathed in a nectar-like wine syrup. This is one of the more intriguing fruit desserts you’ll taste, and there’s nothing to it — merely nectarines, sugar, wine and an interesting technique. We’ve been making it every summer since I first wrote about the dish in The Italian Country Table.
Sometimes you need a break from all that lush summer fruit with a sweet that reminds you of what good chocolate and summer cream can do for each other. The bite of strong, dark roast coffee teases out chocolate’s appealingly bitter edge, so things don’t go too far over the top. This desert comes together easily and holds in the fridge for several days.
Equipment:
Ingredients
Blurring the lines between ice cream and mousse, simplicity and finesse, nostalgia and novelty, this is the kind of dessert that’s hard to categorize but easy to love.
Inspired by an old 19th-century American recipe, these golden peaches or nectarines are stained crimson by port wine and served in an intense vanilla cream, drizzled with their ruby cooking syrup. Make two to three days ahead and keep chilled. Assemble at the picnic site.
This Souffle is better without flour, because the chocolate has enough body to hold the egg whites. More than any other souffle, the chocolate souffle should not be overcooked but slightly wet in the center. Serve hot right out of the oven with the sauce or let it cool, unmold and serve in wedges like a cake with or without a sauce.
Ingredients
Good to Know: A mix of sugar and honey in these citrusy cookies satisfies a sweet tooth, yet each thin, delicate cookie has only forty-four calories. Go ahead, have two.