Peach Melba

The peach Melba is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. The dish was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savory Hotel in London. The dish honored the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. 

Nellie Melba entertained at the Wagner's Opera at Covent Garden in 1892.The Duke of Orleans gave a dinner party to celebrate her triumph. For this occasion and in Melba's honor a new dessert would be created. 

I

Peach Melba Parfait

YIELD: 4 servings

Peaches:
* 1 1/2 cup cups water (can also replace up to half of this amount with a white wine)
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1/2 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise
* 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
* 4 peaches, cut in half

Raspberry sauce:
* 1 1/2 cups raspberries
* 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
* 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

* 1 pint vanilla ice

Heat the water (and wine, if using), sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla pod in a large saucepan over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Bring the pan to the boil and let it cook for several minutes. Reduce heat and bring the syrup to a fast simmer. Poach the peaches for several minutes until just softened. Remove the peaches to a plate and let cool. When cool, remove the peels and pits and cut each peach half into 4 pieces.

Combine the raspberries, powdered sugar, and lemon juice in a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. If you’re using a standard blender or food processor, sieve to remove the seeds… if you’re using a high speed blender like a Vitamix, you can skip this step.

To assemble alternate layers of the poached peaches, the raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream and garnish with a couple raspberries.

Adapted from Nigella Lawson