Fresh Picks: Peaches 101

Welcome to Fresh Picks, where we celebrate the seasonal ingredients we can’t stop cooking. Recently, we've talked about the radness of radishes and the pep of shishito peppers. This month, we're getting warm and fuzzy with one of summer's best fruits: peaches. 

Few fruits capture the height of summer quite like a ripe peach. With their floral notes, dripping juices and soft, yielding flesh, peaches move easily from sweet to savory, turning up in everything from herb-laced salads to jammy desserts.

Prunus persica are believed to have been cultivated in China thousands of years ago, long before making their way west along trade routes to Europe and, eventually, North America. 

Botanically speaking, peaches are drupes, fruits with a single hard pit at the center of soft flesh. (Nectarines are just peaches without the five o’clock shadow.) It is a broad, overachieving category that includes olives, walnuts and even almonds, which explains why peaches pair so naturally with nutty, floral and savory flavors.

Beyond that, they shine alongside tomatoes, fennel and sweet summer corn. When pairing peaches, just use a bit of seasonal common sense; what grows together tends to taste good together. A little acid and salt only sharpen peaches’ appeal further, which is why peaches are just as compelling beside burrata or grilled pork as they are under a blanket of whipped cream.

How to Buy and Store Peaches

For fruit that releases cleanly from the pit, seek out freestone peaches. Clingstone varieties, as the name suggests, hold fast to the flesh, making them better suited to cooking or preserving than casual slicing over the sink. When grilling, choose peaches that are ripe but still firm, which allows the surface to char and the interior to retain enough structure to avoid collapse.

To ripen, place peaches in a closed brown paper bag at room temperature until the flesh yields to gentle pressure. Once ripe, store in a single layer on a towel-lined plate or baking sheet in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days. Cold temperatures will dull peaches’ complex flavors, so let them sit out briefly before eating if possible.

Ways to Cook with Peaches

Here are four recipes that make the most of this spectacular summer star.

1. Pork Chops with Peach and Fennel Salad

Yes, peaches are sublime in pie or eaten standing over the sink, but they’re equally at home on the dinner table. In this recipe, they mingle with crisp fennel in a mint-flecked salad that balances juicy sweetness with sharp, herbal freshness. Fennel seeds and crushed peppercorns on the pork echo the salad’s cool licorice notes while giving the chops a deeply savory crust. It makes a striking main, though the salad easily holds its own alongside nearly any summer spread.

2. Peach Skillet Cobbler

Showcase ripe peach wedges in a simple yet delicious skillet cobbler. After marinating the fruit in brown sugar and lemon juice, you’ll top it with a quick batter that bakes up with crisp, golden edges. Baking the cobbler in a skillet encourages deeply caramelized edges and keeps the fruit bubbling and jammy underneath. Keep this method on hand for whatever fruit is in season, though peaches are especially suited to the task. Top with scoops of vanilla ice cream, of course.

3. Tomato, Peach and Burrata Salad With Chile-Lime Vinaigrette

Little did you know that the classic caprese salad was due for an upgrade, courtesy of stone fruit. Peaches join tomatoes and burrata—mozzarella’s creamy cousin—in an easy appetizer or side dish ready for backyard barbecues, summer dinner parties or really anytime you want to give peaches a savory twist. Save the chile-lime vinaigrette for future salads, because the combination of fish sauce, lime juice and sugar is beyond brilliant. P.S. Though any ripe tomatoes will do, look for heirlooms that have enough flavor to compete with the other ingredients.

4. Grilled Summer Peaches

Heat coaxes out peaches’ natural almond and vanilla notes, while a touch of char pushes them further toward deep caramelization. After searing havled peaches in your Hybrid 12” BBQ Grill Pan, they’re paired with vanilla gelato, crumbled ice cream cones, basil leaves and a glossy rosé syrup that ties everything together with floral sweetness and bright acidity. The combination of warm fruit, cool gelato and crisp cone pieces is equal parts dinner party dessert and peak summer flex.

At their best, peaches manage to be both delicate and excessive. (Perhaps this may explain why peach season inspires otherwise rational people to buy them by the dozen.) Here’s to all the delicious ways to cook them.