16 April 2008

Canned peaches from Monate's Lake

Madeleine with Monate Lake's canned peaches

I was born in the Lake region of Italy: only around Varese there are 7 lakes (famous for a hard bike tour): Varese, Maggiore, Comabbio, Biandronno, Monate, Ghirla, Ganna ! Well, do not imagine lakes of the size of an American lake: no, nothing like that! They small lakes, but very very picturesque... Those lakes are very lucky with the climate, and always blessed with mild weather.
Once, many years ago, I was wandering around the Lake District, in England, and I suddenly felt like I was home: the two landscape are very similar!
The Lago Maggiore, being the biggest of the 7 (Maggiore means bigger), is well known and very beautiful... But all the other lakes are a popular destination during the summer, especially Lago di Monate, being one of the few where you can bath, and being very clean too! :)
Around Lago di Monate, there are several orchards, and the most famous are peaches, especially canned peaches.
Forget all about the normal, chewy and tasteless canned peaches you find in supermarkets: those are something else!
First of all, they are still firm! And they are not all the same: each halve is different from the other, because that's nature: nothing is exactly similar to the rest!
And then the flavour: awesome! Fresh, almost as if just picked from the tree!

For the picture above, I just drained them, blended them and then use them as a sauce for madeilenes! :)