Recipe | Honey-baked peaches, marscapone & pistachios

One of the great joys of this time of year is the bounty of just-ripe summer fruit, and every morning I walk past grocery shops brimming with plump strawberries, juicy-looking plums and a rainbow of colourful berries. Peaches are perhaps my favourite, though – I have fond memories of devouring them at the end of the garden as a child, their sweet nectar dribbling down my chin, and as soon as I bite into them I can almost feel the sunshine on my skin.

As you can imagine, I was delighted to see peaches taking centre stage in the latest seasonal recipe from Kym of beautiful food blog On the Plate. Her dish pairs baked peaches with creamy marscapone cheese, crunchy pistachios and warming kick of cinnamon, enhancing rather than overpowering their delicate flavour. It’s the perfect summer treat: simple, delicious and, because it uses honey rather than added sugar, I’m going to say healthy, too…

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 4 ripe peaches, halved and stoned
• A knob of butter
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4tbsp honey
• 100g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
• 250g mascarpone (1 standard-sized tub)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180°C / 160°C fan.
2. Grease an oven-proof baking dish with the butter and nestle the peaches into the dish, flesh side up.
3. Drizzle the honey over the peaches and add the cinnamon sticks.
4. Bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes, then remove and spoon over the honey from the baking dish. Bake for a further 15 minutes until golden.
5. Serve with a generous scoop of mascarpone, a drizzle of honey from the dish, and some chopped pistachios.

I’ll share another wonderful recipe from Kym next month. And as always, you’ll find plenty more inspiration over at On the Plate.

All photography by Kym Grimshaw