Peaches & Cheese!
If I have counted correctly, the recipe in this week’s Berkshire Eagle is #200 of those that I have published in my column! I started this back in November 2020, and almost six years later, I still enjoy the creativity of this endeavor.
SWEETLY SAVORY
by Elizabeth Baer
Do you have a food memory that you recall in exquisite detail? Was there a moment when you tasted something so perfect, so delicious that everything about it is indelibly etched in your mind? One such moment for me involved a peach, a perfect peach.
My family had traveled to Greece the summer after I graduated from high school, with several days in Athens and environs, then a few weeks sailing from island to island. From the moment we arrived, my mother insisted that we peel any raw produce we were eating. (Thankfully we were able to convince her this was impractical with juicy, olive oil-dressed Greek salads, which we ate almost daily.) Of course, her edict included this most perfect peach.
We were sitting at the dock on Paros, waiting for the ferry to take us to for a day trip to Antiparos. There was a fruit seller right there with ripe, fragrant peaches, and we bought a bag. With a Swiss Army knife, I began peeling the fruit, the skin coming off easily. The juice began to drip down my arm before I even took a bite. I have never again tasted such a peach.
And that memory leads to my dilemma with buying fruit, when you think you’ve picked a really good prospect and excitedly take a bite, but it’s such a letdown when it turns out to be tasteless and mealy. Sometimes you get lucky. But for those times when you don’t, fruit can be cooked so it doesn’t have to stand on its own merits, as in this recipe for a sweetly savory peach tart with chèvre. Store-bought puff pastry makes it easy, and you can definitely riff on this idea with different choices for the fruit or the nuts. It’s great cut into smaller pieces for hors d’oeuvres, or into larger pieces, perhaps to serve with a salad, for an elegant luncheon menu, as it happened on the day I first attempted this creation, when I shared it with four friends, who all declared it a success!
SAVORY PEACH TART WITH CHÈVRE
Makes up to 12 pieces, more or less
INGREDIENTS:
1 sheet puff pastry (store-bought is fine and advisable)
2 medium peaches
½ medium onion, chopped (about ⅔–¾ cup)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch salt
4 ounces goat cheese, plain or herbed, softened
1-2 tablespoons milk, if needed
Flour for dusting work surface
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
DIRECTIONS:
If using frozen puff pastry, check the package directions and take one sheet out of the freezer to defrost. The amount of time will vary depending on the brand and whether it defrosts in the refrigerator or on the counter. (Even refrigerator brands will need to come to room temperature, but require less timing consideration.)
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Cut a shallow ‘X’ into the bottom of each peach. Place in the boiling water for only 1 minute. Remove immediately to a cutting board and allow to cool for a minute or two. The skin will have loosened and you should be able to grab a piece of skin from the corner of each cut and pull it off. Continue until the peaches are fully peeled. Slice the peaches into thin wedges. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a small to medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt, and sauté until softened and mostly golden.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Place the goat cheese in a small bowl and add the cooked onion. Stir to combine. If it’s too thick to spread easily, add 1 tablespoon of milk and stir. If it’s still really thick, try adding another tablespoon of milk.
Place a piece of parchment large enough for a half sheet pan on your work surface and dust with flour. Unroll the defrosted sheet of puff pastry onto the parchment. Dust the top and a rolling pin, and roll the puff pastry until almost the size of a half sheet pan. Note that different brands of puff pastry will require different treatment here. Pepperidge Farm, for example, tends to be smaller in area but thicker out of the package, and is also drier and may not need as much flour dusted on top. On the other hand, 365 seems to come out of the package larger in area, thinner, and wetter, so it needs less rolling, but more flour both underneath and on top so it can stretch out a little bit more. Do your best with whatever brand you have. Slide the parchment paper with the puff pastry onto a half sheet pan.
Dollop the goat cheese mixture in 4-6 places on the puff pastry. Spread out to an even layer, leaving about a ½-inch border. An offset spatula works well if you have one.
Arrange the peach slices in whatever pattern you desire on top of the goat cheese.
Brush the border of the puff pastry with beaten egg, and then brush the peaches and any exposed goat cheese likewise. Sprinkle the almonds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the exposed puff pastry is puffed and golden. Remove to a cooling rack, by sliding the parchment off the sheet pan. You can slide the parchment out at this point so the tart can cool from the bottom as well.
Once it has cooled a bit, cut into desired portions. Serve warm or at room temperature, but not hot nor cold.