Warm Vine Peach Soup with Irancy Wine
Soupe aux Peches de Vigne a l’Irancy
Peche de Vigne is a variety of red-fleshed, late-ripening, flavorful peach. Called such because it’s sometimes grown among the vines, it also goes by the name ‘peche sanguine’ or ‘blood peach’. Not too sweet, with a slight bitter edge, it has a unique cooking quality. Used in a savory preparation, it makes a nice accompaniment to game birds, for example.
Blanch the peaches in boiling water for 2 minutes; you will notice they have very fuzzy skin. Remove the skins and quarter the peaches. In a sauté pan melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and add the peach quarters; sprinkle with a little sugar and cook until lightly caramelized, 5 minutes or so. Remove to a plate and reserve.
In the same pan melt the rest of the butter add the remaining sugar and the cinnamon stick. Deglaze the pan with the Irancy wine. Reduce by half; then return the peaches to the pan to heat through. Serve in a warm bowl with some cookies (like almond tuiles) and scoop of vanilla ice cream if you like.
Irancy is one of the prettiest wine villages you’ll ever see. Situated up near Chablis, it also makes some formidable Pinot. In a region mostly given over to white wine, Irancy produces red Burgundy worthy of the name. There are not many producers, but a high percentage of them do good work, so it can be a reasonable bet, picked blindly off the wine shop shelf. We like Thierry Richoux, and have been buying wine from there for over 20 years.
Serves: 8
Ingredients
8 ripe firm blood peaches
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup Irancy wine (or light Pinot Noir)
Fresh mint for garnish
1 quart vanilla ice cream (optional)