Two effortless summer desserts

What I’m cooking when my imagination needs a rest: ricotta tiramisù and peaches in wine

Every year, around September, we sit down at the computer and look ahead to the coming year. This is when we start planning our Masterclasses (keep your eyes peeled – the new season is just around the corner!), decide how many experiences to host each week in line with our broader business goals and ongoing projects, and set aside time—often aligning with Livia’s school holidays—for a couple of family breaks.

Last year, it all felt perfectly manageable: we’d work right through summer, letting Livia return to the summer camp she’d so adored the previous year, and postpone our holidays to the first ten days of September, just before she begins her final year of preschool. It seemed smart, well thought out. What we hadn’t factored in was just how long summer—this summer, hot, humid, dense with heartbreaking events—would feel.

But now, here we are, nearly at the finish line. We’re tying up the last of our projects (our new cookbook is in its final stages. Tommaso has delivered all the photos and I am currently making the final edits to the text – I will tell you more about it soon!), sketching out our autumn classes and new ideas we’ll be working on, and slowly adding new spots to our Salento map, places we’re excited to explore.

For now, I’m keeping things simple in the kitchen, as my imagination feels thoroughly spent. Lots of vegetables: roasted in generous batches to stretch over a few meals, steamed in the pressure cooker, or sautéed gently with garlic and olive oil. Tomatoes and cucumbers show up at every meal—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Jars of beans and chickpeas sit ready in the pantry, and a dollop of herby yoghurt brings everything together.

What I really need now, more than anything, is this long-awaited break: time to wander through the local market by the little harbour, the brackish air sharpening my senses in the early morning. I’m eager to browse the stalls of local produce with fresh eyes, basking in the imperfect beauty of heirloom tomatoes, gnarly cucumbers, short, stout green beans, thick-skinned yellow melons, plums, and peaches.

I’m sure that spark will return just in time to savour the final stretch of summer, with that familiar hint of melancholy that always makes me miss it, even while I’m still fully immersed in beach life. I want to slow down and truly relish the juiciness of a ripe peach, eaten barefoot on the terrace, sandy feet and all, without the rush of errands or the call to prep the studio for a class.

I need a pause, a chance to finally refill my creative well, to daydream about new recipes and unexpected flavour pairings, to read, to conjure up stories while fishing for words on the beach or during a solitary walk, to nap, and to taste something new simply for the joy of it.

So, expect one last letter from us next week, all about our August in a Tuscan cooking school, with recipes and stories from the final classes of the season, before we start afresh in mid-September. After that letter, we’ll be taking a two-week break to recharge our batteries the old-fashioned way. In the meantime, you’ll still have full access to our five-year archive of stories and recipes, right here in the newsletter.

And before we switch off, I’m leaving you with two of my favourite easy summer desserts. I’d love to know which one you fancy most, and whether you’ve got a simple, joyful summer treat you turn to on these lazy, sun-soaked days.

RECIPE - Ricotta tiramisu 

A couple of months ago, during the usual meet-and-greet at the local café before our cooking class, I asked the question I always do:“And what would you like for dessert?”

“Can we make tiramisù?” someone asked. I was quite sure we could find some mascarpone at the market, from the little truck that sells everything from cheese to salted cod, brined olives, country bread, and even boiled cannellini beans. But that day, he had run out of it.

So I thought: why not make a simpler version, just with ricotta?

Here’s the video recipe we shared on IG.

You simply whip up some ricotta with sugar and a splash of vinsanto, then layer it with ladyfingers dunked in cold, unsweetened coffee. Top it all with a few shavings of dark chocolate and a dusting of cocoa powder, and it’s done. It’s a quick, comforting dessert best served straight from the fridge.

You can find the full recipe over on Match Pewter’s website.

RECIPE - Peaches in wine

I’ve been making these all summer long, switching up the fruit—starting with flat white donut peaches, then nectarines, and eventually percoche, my favourite golden-fleshed peaches—and playing with the wine and spices, too.

It all started after we devoured some wonderfully chilled peaches in wine at an agriturismo near San Casciano, La Pia in Percussina, during a friend’s wedding. They had that deep, fragrant wine flavour without a recognizable trace of alcohol. I was instantly inspired to recreate them at home, and they’ve become my go-to summer dessert ever since.