by TheRunawaySpoon
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A&M's Testing Notes:
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1 cup
white wine
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1 1/2 cup
granulated sugar
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1 large bunch
fresh basil
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Place the wine, 1 1/2 cups water and sugar in a wide bottomed saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar slightly. Place the pan on the stove over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat, leaving the syrup to simmer gently.
Ask the hotline about this step!Cut the peaches in half and remove pits gently. Drop half of the basil leaves into the syrup, and then gently place the peach halves cut side down into the syrup. Poach for about 3 minutes and then gently turn over using a slotted spoon. Continue poaching for an additional 3 – 4 minutes, until soft (cooking time will depend on ripeness of peaches). Carefully prick the cut side of the peaches to check for tenderness. The peels should be wrinkling up as well. You may cook the peaches in two batches if all the halves will not fit in the pan at once.
Ask the hotline about this step!Remove the peaches to a plate with a slotted spoon. When they are cool enough to handle, gently slide the skins off and discard. Add all but about six basil leaves to the syrup and bring to a boil; boil until reduced by about half. Pour any juices that have collected on the plate with the peaches into the syrup. Leave to cool to room temperature.
Ask the hotline about this step!The peaches can be covered with plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for several hours. When ready to serve, place two peach halves on a plate and drizzle with a little basil syrup. Reserve the remaining syrup for another use. Garnish with basil leaves and serve.
Ask the hotline about this step!I tried this and loved the sauce and found the recipe worked perfectly. I used a Pinot Grigio for the syrup. I found that I am not crazy about poached peaches, I find them to be just bland and with the sauce they become bland and sweet. It could have been that my peaches were not that flavorful to begin with, who knows. But the sauce is worth making even if you feed the peaches to the dog :) I used the sauce the next day on french toast and sliced the peaces on top. The syrup tasted wonderful on the french toast. I will also be whipping it with some cream later on to use with fruit or some other type of pastry.
I made half the recipe yesterday afternoon, as I only had three peaches, but sliced them up and arranged them around the sweetened marscapone to make four servings. The recipe was easy to follow and worked perfectly. There is left over sauce, which I need to figure out how to use. I used a Seyval Blanc wine (Illinois) which is much like a cross between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Burgundian Chardonnay, which worked very well. The basil really came through, although I used less of it than the recipe called for. The house smelled wonderful for hours!
Finally! Ripe peaches and this recipe makes insanely delicious peaches. Wow!
It looks absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to try it, subbing agave for the sugar! Let you know how it goes
I made this yesterday with ginger wine in place of the white wine - well, the only white I had was prosseco and I couldn't open the bottle so I used my negelected ginger wine.....it was lovely with some icecream - I love the reddish blush on the good peaches I had (I had a couple that were hard and didn't look pretty - those will be compoted or jammed!). My guests loved it, it was a snap to make and you definitely got a dose of basil. Thanks for a great recipe
This really deserved to win - it is simple and truly delicious - tasted as good as it looked. The resulting syrup alone is worth the making, once the peaches were gone it was great w/yoghurt and vanilla ice cream both. I think it would work with pears later in the season as well.
Congratulations on your win! This is a beautiful and simple recipe. I made it a couple days ago, and although I struggled with both the pits and skins of my clingstone peaches, I enjoyed the finished result --even if the peaches were a bit more mangled than the ones in the photo : ).
I diced the leftover peaches and stored them in the syrup, and have been enjoying them for breakfast, stirred into plain Greek yogurt with a bit of the syrup. Scrumptious. Also used the syrup to make a lovely peach-scented prosecco spritzer. This recipe goes for miles.
Thanks for the suggestions about how to use the leftover syrup. I'll add it to my yogurt and granola in the morning.
Made this tonight with white peaches and rosé instead of white wine. It was delish! Great recipe.
Your recipe inspired me to concoct a peach and basil herbal iced tea, using peach passion tea and basil. I love it! The flavors work so well together. Thanks!
This looks really lovely. Unfortunately, it is still early for peaches where I live. I will definitely use the recipe when I do get peaches, but would like to try it sooner. Do you think this could work with golden plums?
I have never tried this with any other fruit...I am not sure plums would soak up the syrup as nicely, and the peels wouldn't slip off. But the combination of basil and plums sounds good, so give it a try!
What a pretty recipe. I'll be making this soon. Congratulations!
These look fabulous! I have about 20 lbs of peaches in the walk in right now and I am very tempted to set some aside just to try this. Kudos to you Runaway Spoon!
Love simple, elegant summer recipes such as yours - peaches are so perfect right now!
my csa pickup consisted of 5lbs of peaches and basil --- i'm thrilled to have found this recipe!
A&M, what kind of white wine did you use? I imagine that would make a big difference in the results. Thanks! ;o)
I love poached peaches - will definitely have to try. (Beautiful photo, btw.)
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Only four ingredients are needed: peaches, sugar, white wine and basil.
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Amanda energetically separates basil leaves from their stems. This part is optional -- she was just in the mood for precision.
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It was so humid that the sugar clumped together in iceberg-like chunks. Here, it's being added to water and white wine (a Gruner Veltliner, Riesling or something else floral is especially nice).
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Lovely local peaches.
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Not so lovely when you try to separate the halves.
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Clingstone, no less!
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As we struggle with the peaches, the syrup simmers happily away.
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Back on the battlefield...
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The aftermath. It's not pretty.
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Luckily, we found that most of the butchered peach halves looked just fine once we turned them over!
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The basil goes into the syrup to infuse.
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Followed by the peaches, pretty side up!
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Cooking time will depend on the ripeness of your peaches. This batch took nearly 15 minutes to soften and release their skins, but our first one only took about 6.
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Still waiting on those peaches.
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When the skins are ready to come off, they pucker and wrinkle. Amanda noted that they start to look like the skin of an elephant.
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The rest of the basil goes in, and the syrup (now pink from the peaches) gets reduced so the flavors become concentrated.
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Our skins were still a little resistant, but we managed to peel them off eventually!
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Superb recipe. Simple, refined, and made with everything readily at hand. In good years, my parents have a plethora of peaches, and monster amounts of basil. This makes good use of both. This year I'm trying canning them. They work perfectly atop a cream tarte.