Recipe below: Crostata with Summer Peaches and Rosemary
Fruit and herbs. I’m always looking for good new combinations of fruit with fresh herbs. And in my culinary travels this summer I’ve discovered I love rosemary with stone fruit. Not too much rosemary; just a small amount will perfume the fruit with a gentle evergreen aroma. Too much and you might wind up with harsh medicine. So follow me here, and I’ll show you how nice it can be.
I first tried this flavor combo last week with small yellow plums, called lemon plums, that I found at the Union Square market, making a rosemary-scented syrup that I poured hot over the stoned fruit, letting it soak in. It was piney and sweet. Then I moved on to peaches, which had just become available at Migliorelli, my farm stand in Rhinebeck. They had both yellow and white peaches. I chose the white ones for this, but I left their mottled red skins on for color and richness of taste. Before I went about putting this crostata together, I sliced a peach, placed a few rosemary needles on it, and ate it. The taste was a mix of sweet, pine, lemon, and, I thought, also a hint of black pepper. That was what I was hoping for.
Heat both mellows and deepens flavor, depending on what you’re working with. For instance here the peaches became less acidic, more just melting sweet with a hit of citrus. The rosemary lost its harsh edge, but also spread its flavor throughout the crostata in a softened way. All good.
When apricots show up at my markets, in the next week or so, I’m going to try using rosemary on them, maybe in a sorbetto. I’m not sure, but stay tuned.
And happy summer herb cooking at all my friends.
Crostata with Summer Peaches and Rosemary
For the pastry:
2 1/4 cups regular flour
1 tablespoon sugar, plus a little more for sprinkling on the crust
A pinch of salt
2 small sprigs rosemary, the leaves well chopped (about 1 teaspoon chopped)
1½ sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice, plus a little more for greasing the sheet pan
¼ cup cold white wine
1 egg yolk, for brushing on the crust
For the filling:
4 large or 5 medium-size summer peaches, unpeeled and sliced
¼ cup sugar
2 small sprigs rosemary, the leaves well chopped (about 1 teaspoon chopped)
A tiny pinch of salt
A pinch of ground allspice
A tiny splash of Kirsch or grappa (about 1 teaspoon)
A big squeeze of fresh lemon juice
To make the pastry, put the flour in a food processor. Add the sugar, salt, and rosemary, and give it a few pulses to blend everything. Add the butter, and give it a few quick pulses to break up the butter into tiny bits. Add the white wine, and pulse a few more times, just until you have a crumbly, moist mass. Don’t pulse so much that it works into a ball.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface, and press it into a ball. Cover it with plastic, and stick it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (you can also leave it overnight, if you like).
About a half hour before you plan on cooking the crostata, put the sliced peaches in a large bowl. Add the sugar, rosemary, salt, and allspice. Add the Kirsch and the lemon juice, and give everything a toss.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and rub a large sheet pan with butter.
Take the pastry from the refrigerator, and let it warm up for about 15 minutes.
Flour a work surface, and roll the pastry out into a 12- or 13-inch round, trimming the edges to make it even. Place it on a large, standard-size sheet pan, which is 13 inches wide, so it should fit perfectly.
Lift the peaches out of the bowl with a slotted spoon so most of the liquid gets left behind (you don’t want the crostata to get too soggy), and place them in the center of the pastry, pressing them down a bit so the fruit comes to about 1½ inches from the rim. Pull up the edge of the pastry, and fold it back toward the center, pressing it all around so it makes a pretty tight package (see my photo above for what it should look like).
Put the egg yolk in a glass with a splash of water, and whisk it around. Brush the crust with the egg wash, and then sprinkle it with a little sugar.
Bake the crostata until it’s golden and fragrant, about 30 to 35 minutes. Then let it rest for about ½ hour before cutting.
I like to serve it with sweetened ricotta or crème fraîche or whipped cream—or with nothing. A glass of Beaujolais is a wonderful accompaniment, reminding me of the bowls of peaches in red wine my father used to bring out for summer cookouts.
Erica De Mane 
Lord knows I’ve got rosemary bushes! I would like to try it with Italian plums that grow so well here and nectarines…hubby won’t eat peaches (go figure)…And I’m always game for a fruit crostata! The idea of making a plum sorbet with rosemary makes we wish I still had that ice-cream maker! You have the best ideas!
This sounds so good – and I hardly ever do any Italian-style baking – so I’ve got peaches on my shopping list for tomorrow, and will be trying this, pronto.
The flat white peaches I used were a bit lacking in flavour and as jam is such a classic ingredient for crostata I might use a thin layer of, say, raspberry jam between the pastry and fresh fruit, next time – but it was a good dish. I love the not-quite-pastry / not-quite-cake texture of crostata pastry and added just a little raising agent to play up that quality.
Like you, I have my eye on using some apricots, too.