Ravinder Bhogal's recipes for cooking with peaches

If you're lucky with a pink, spotless, ripe peach, sink your teeth into it and immediately savor its sublime sweetness, without any adornment. There's little you can add to a perfect peach to enhance its unbridled juiciness, fragrant flavor and luscious flesh, but UK peach perfection is a rarity, as imported fruit is usually picked before they are ripe, to avoid bruising. For those pesky peaches that refuse to go soft, apply heat: grilling, poaching, or roasting them will help bring out their natural sweetness and honey flavor. > This is a reworked classic salad that uses stale bread for frugal eating. Reinforced by the addition of hot grilled peaches and salted feta, it is particularly succulent.

Preparation 20 minCooking 5 minServes 4 to 6

About 250ml rapeseed oil, for frying2 day-old Lebanese flatbreads or pitta, slivered3 white peaches, pitted and quarteredSea salt and black pepper100ml olive oil extra virgin, plus 1 tbsp for drizzling (I love unfiltered Zaytoun 1 breads) 300g grape tomatoes or small cherry tomatoes, halved 2 Lebanese cucumbers, chopped 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped 1 small bunch of leaves mint, picked and roughly chopped8 radishes, thinly sliced200g feta cheese1 tbsp sumac2 tbsp lemon juice

Place the rapeseed oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and , when hot, add half the bread and sauté for 15 to 20 seconds, until tender. it is golden. Drain on paper towel, and repeat with remaining bread.

Heat a hot frying pan. Season the peaches and drizzle with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, then grill on both sides until charred and scratched, and let cool slightly.

Mix the peaches in a large bowl with the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint and radishes. Coarsely break the pieces of bread, crumble the feta and mix the two with the salad ingredients. Sprinkle with sumac, season to taste, then season with the remaining extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Toss gently to combine and serve immediately.

The marriage of sweet peaches and ch...