This is my favorite time of year, the month of July. The days are long and hot under intense blue skies and brilliant, scorching sun. The peaches, plums, apricots and pears are ripening and we’ll have a bumper crop of blackberries in a few weeks. Most of the flowers of spring like poppies, peonies and roses have given way to the flowers of summer: fields of yellow sunflowers, hedges of butterfly bush and banks of purple lavender.
Lavender is widely used as a border in gardens and, being a perennial, gets bigger and fuller every year. No garden or yard is complete without a lavender hedge, buzzing with bees and butterflies while it’s flowering and perfuming the garden all summer. In Tuscany, beekeepers will move their hives next to lavender hedges so the bees will make the most delicious lavender scented honey. It’s hard to find and worth every penny you’ll spend if you do.
Lavender is an edible flower and its perfume has a calming effect on both the mind and body. It’s widely used in aroma therapy, bath and body treatments, and sleep aids. I like to pick some of the flowers, tie them in a small cloth and toss them in the bath.
Lavender also goes well with summer fruits, giving a deeper complexity to the simplicity of peaches, apricots and berries. Toss a flower or two into a marinade of peaches with white wine; mix them with simple syrup while it’s still hot and use that to make an interesting sorbet of blackberries or raspberries. Its high concentration of oil goes well in creamy desserts and you need just one of two flowers to flavor a dish. To make lavender ice cream, start with a basic ice cream base of cream, eggs and sugar and toss a flower or two into the milk or cream while it’s heating.
The most elegant dessert though is lavender pannacotta with diced peaches. Light, rich and beautiful, the lavender oil delicately scents the cooked cream and the fresh peaches lightly seasoned with sugar and lemon juice, bring the summer garden onto your plate.
Buon Appetito! Gina
Lavender Pannacotta w/ Peaches
1 quart heavy cream
1 cup sugar
3 gelatin sheets (available at specialty food shops)
2 lavender flowers (two stems)
3 peaches, peeled and diced
1 teas fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar
If you can find ripe white peaches, they’re the best. Their delicate rose scent goes beautifully with the lavender.
Soak gelatin sheets in tap water until soft. Combine cream with sugar and lavender; bring to a boil in a medium sauce pan. As soon as cream begins to boil, remove from the heat, take the gelatin out of water and whisk into cream. Pour into a large bowl and cool over an ice bath, stirring until it’s room temperature or cooler. Strain out the flowers. Ladle into cups or bowls and refrigerate until cold and firm. Mix the peaches with the lemon juice and sugar and let macerate an hour. Turn the pannacotta out onto individual plates, serve the peaches on top and around the pannacotta.