Grilled Peaches with Ricotta and Honey

While I love thinking about summer as a season when you finally wear some light clothes, light or none at all make-up, enjoy a glass of fresh lemonade by the swimming pool (wouldn't be so bad if I had one, swimming pool, of course), prepare your bags mentally for the holiday that's not so far (mine at least isn't)... I also love thinking about summer in terms of all that gorgeous fruit that finally brightens the market shelves.
After the first ones are enjoyed pure as they are, the second or third time I buy some fruit that's just come in season, I start thinking about what I could make with it. Cherries have already given their best, and it's time for peaches, nectarines and apricots. So refreshing and juicy, delicious whatever you do to them.
Peaches are excellent summer fruit, energizing and restoring minerals in situatiations when we sweat a lot. So, summer is welcome, I have my peaches to give me back some energy *__*
They are rich in calcium, potassium and vitamin C.

And... I can't believe I actually turned the oven on, but I did. And I survived, because the prize was well worth it.
Grilled peaches are not something new, but I admit, so far I've only read about them, never made them myself. And I really liked them.
Some recipes suggest meringue topping with addition of nuts underneath, some again suggest a rather heavy mascarpone cheese to go with them... and I opted for a lighter version with ricotta, seemed like a good compromise. I added some fresh whipping cream, just because my ricotta was very firm and dry and I wanted to make it a little bit creamier.
This time I used nectarines, actually, because that's what I had, but plain peaches or apricots can be prepared in the same way.
Enjoy!

Grilled Peaches with Ricotta and Honey

(4 servings)
* 4 peaches (or nectarines like me)
* 1/2 vanilla bean
* 1 1/2 TBspoons caster sugar
* 1 rosemary twig
* 200 g ricotta cheese
* about 50 ml whipping cream
* 2 TBspoons honey
* (optional) some toasted slivered almonds for serving

Turn your oven on with the broiler function on.
Wash and dry the peaches. Cut them in half and remove stones.
Place the peaches on a baking tray lined with baking paper, cut side up.
Mix the sugar with the scraped vanilla seeds and sprinkle the peaches.
Sprinkle the rosemary leaves over them, place the empty vanilla bean halves among the peaches, and put them in the hot oven, 10 minutes.
In the meantime whisk the ricotta with honey until smooth and creamy. Add the whipping cream and whisk well.
Place the warm peaches on dessert plates or bowls, add a couple TBspoons of ricotta mixture to each and serve.
Slightly toasted slivered almonds would have been a great addition if I hadn't forgotten them.






Pesche grigliate con ricotta e miele


* 4 pesche
* 1,5 cucchiaini di zucchero
* 1/2 baccello di vaniglia
* 200 g di ricotta
* 50-60 ml panna fresca
* 2 cucchiai di miele d'acacia
* 1 rametto di rosmarino


Tagliate le pesche a metà e togliete i noccioli.
Tagliate il baccello di vaniglia a metà, togliete i semi con un coltello e mescolateli allo zucchero.
Distribuite le pesche su una placca da forno ricoperta da carta da forno con la parte tagliata verso l'alto. Cospargetele con lo zucchero vanigliato. Aggiungete le foglioline di rosmarino e il baccello vuoto di vaniglia.
Infornate nel forno caldo sotto il grill per circa 10 minuti.
Nel frattempo mescolate la ricotta con il miele usando una frusta a mano fino a renderla liscia e cremosa. Aggiungete tanta panna quanto basta per renderla un po fluida (anche se la panna comincia a montare mentre la mescolate).
Servite le pesche tiepide accompagnandole con la crema di ricotta. 
Anche qualche scaglia di mandorle tostata non ci starebbe male, ma io ho dimenticato di aggiungerle.

Odličan ljetni desert koji se može pripremati s breskvama, nektarinama ili marelicama. Po želji umjesto ricotte može se napraviti i krema s mascarponeom (u tom slučaju nije potrebno dodavati vrhnje), ali i zaslađeni grčki jogurt bi bio isto tako ukusna, a lagana varijanta.


Grilane breskve s ricottom i medom


* 4 breskve
* 1,5 žlicašećera
* 1/2 mahunevanilije
* 200 gricotte
* 50-60 mlslatkog vrhnja
* 2 žlice meda od bagrema
* 1 grančicaružmarina


Breskve prepolovite i izvadite im koštice.
Stavite očišćene polovice na pleh obložen papirom za pečenje, s prerezanom stranom okrenutom prema gore.
Pomiješajte šećer s nastruganim sjemenkama vanilije (prerežite mahunu uzdužno pa tupom stranom noža sastružite sjemenke). Pospite breskve ovim mirisnim šećerom.
Dodajte još i prazne polovice mahune vanilije i listiće ružmarina, pa stavite peći breskve u zagrijanu pećnicu pod gril, 10 minuta.
Izmiješajte dobro ricottu s medom mikserom ili ručnom pjenjačom da postane kremasta.
Dodajte slatko vrhnje i izmiješajte (nisam mutila mikserom jer sam htjela da bude rjeđa krema, ali možete i umutiti. Također prilagodite količinu vrhnja da dobijete gustoću koja vam se sviđa).
Poslužite pečene breskve uz ricottu.