A Time for Excess

Summer fruit alert! This is the season of the genuine article: aromatic, juicy and full-flavored because it’s ripe and local. Avanti, food lovers, let us seize the day.

Let us eat berries for breakfast, snack on nectarines, set bowls of shining cherries on the side table where they will be handy for nibbles at all times. Let us also make strawberry shortcake, with biscuits, please, and homemade ice cream and cherry tart and plum kuchen and peach pie.

The latter set of activities will take some determination. This is, after all, the season of wishful thinking, when diet and health writers constantly remind us that “fresh ripe fruit is so lovely there’s no need for cream or pastry.”

Of course. There’s no need for Mozart when birds are singing, either. Fresh fruit is--or should be--a basic, many-times-a-day food. Treats are treats. Not the same. Here follow a few general hints about summer fruit and a specifically old-fashioned, summertime special dessert.

Summer Fruit Selection, Storage, Preparation

Peaches, nectarines and plums will, like tomatoes, ripen after picking if they were mature when picked. Choose peaches and nectarines that have no hint of green, firm but not hard plums that still carry a bit of whitish bloom. Store at room temperature. Fully ripe peaches, nectarines and tomatoes can be peeled without being dipped in boiling water; just firmly stroke the fruit with the dull side of a knife to loosen the skin.

Berries--blue, straw, rasp, you name it--will not ripen after picking, though they may soften and darken in color. Pick over as soon as possible, discarding all moldy or badly bruised fruits, and lay out on a plate or platter in a single layer. Place in the refrigerator, loosely covered with wax paper. Berries absorb water easily. Avoid rinsing if possible (clean, organic fruit), or rinse by swishing in a big bowl of cool water and lifting out. The force of water from the tap can cause bruising.

When baking and mousse-making, remember to taste as you go. Most recipes call for fixed amounts of sugar but there’s nothing fixed about the taste of fruit. A squeeze of lemon will cure flatness if the fruit is dead ripe. Cream whips most easily in a deep, narrow, cold bowl, by the way.

This is a two-toned pink mousse of strawberries and cream, encircled by slices of peach, on an almond cookie crust. It’s rich but light, extremely pretty and easy--though not quick--to put together. Since it must be prepared well in advance, it’s ideal for summer entertaining.

SUMMER SPECIAL

1 quart plus 1 pint ripe strawberries

1/2 cup sugar or to taste

1 teaspoon lemon juice or to taste

Dash salt

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

1 3/4 cups whipping cream, preferably not ultrapasteurized

Almond Cookie Crust

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 large or 3 small ripe peaches

Unsprayed garden rose and/or pansy petals, white bases removed, optional

Hull 1 quart strawberries. Halve or quarter, depending on size, then mash with wide fork or potato masher until crushed, not pureed. Mix in sugar, lemon juice and salt to taste. (This is flavoring for lots of cream, so it should be intense and well-balanced.) Set aside.

Soften gelatin in 1/3 cup cool water in small saucepan. Stir in 1/4 cup whipping cream. Cook, stirring, over very low heat, just until gelatin is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Stir into crushed berries. Chill mixture until just starting to thicken (like thin catsup), stirring in from sides from time to time.

Whip remaining 1 1/2 cups cream to stiff peaks. Fold gelatin mixture into cream. Remove 3/4 cup mousse mixture and reserve. Pour remaining mousse into prepared Almond Cookie Crust. Chill.

Puree 3/4 cup from remaining pint of strawberries, reserving perfect ones for garnish. Combine strawberry puree with reserved strawberry mousse and let stand 5 minutes at room temperature. Spread over first layer. Chill at least 6 hours.

Combine orange and lemon juices in shallow bowl. Peel peaches, cut into narrow wedges and stir into citrus. Let stand to marinate 5 minutes. Drain well and pat dry with paper towels. (Save marinade and add to ice tea or seltzer.)

Loosen mousse with thin-bladed knife. Wipe outside of springform pan with hot, wet cloth then remove, rinse and dry.

Press peach wedges into sides of dessert. Wrap band of plastic wrap around sides of dessert. Replace springform ring. Press peaches into mousse. Halve reserved whole strawberries and garnish top, lightly pressing each in place. Chill 6 hours longer until fully set. To serve, remove dessert from pan and garnish with flower petals. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Almond Cookie Crust

4 ounces amaretti (dry macaroons made of apricot kernels), crushed

2/3 cup lightly toasted almonds, ground fine but not powdered

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

Lightly butter bottom and lower inside of 9-inch springform pan.

Thoroughly combine crumbs, almonds, sugar and melted butter. (Mixture will barely hold together when squeezed.) Press evenly over bottom of pan. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Cool or partially freeze to firm. Carefully run thin-bladed knife around edge to loosen from sides of pan. (This crust is very fragile, and minor damage is just about inevitable, but it won’t show.) Remove springform ring, wipe any crumbs from inside, and oil with bland vegetable oil. Replace carefully. Makes 1 crust.