Peaches & Nectarines — season, tips, and recipes in New Zealand
Peaches & Nectarines is a fruit available in New Zealand during November, December, January, February, March, peaking in January, February. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy peaches & nectarines, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
Hawke's Bay and Central Otago are NZ's stone fruit regions. Hot dry summers and cold winters produce intense flavour.
How to pick a good one
Smell the stem end. Ripe stone fruit smells like what it is. If it smells like nothing, it'll taste like nothing.
How to store it
Ripen on bench. Once ripe, fridge for up to 3 days.
Goes well with
prosciutto: Salt and sweetness is one of the most reliable flavour contrasts. Prosciutto's fat also carries the peach's aromatic compounds, making both taste more intense. A summer dish that requires no cooking.
burrata: Burrata's creaminess and peach's acidity create a balance similar to fruit and cream but with more savouriness from the cheese's slight tang. The combination is seasonal and excellent.
ginger: Ginger's warmth and peach's floral sweetness sit comfortably together. Used in preserves and chutneys, the combination tastes better preserved than most stone fruits.
almond: Like cherries, peaches are stone fruit and share benzaldehyde with almonds. The relationship is chemical rather than just culinary tradition. Almond pastry with peaches tastes inevitable.
basil: Basil and stone fruit is a less-obvious version of basil and strawberry. The anise notes in basil sit against peach's sweetness in a way that's more interesting than mint, which is too cool for stone fruit.
Recipes
Grilled Peaches with Burrata
Summer on a plate.
Ingredients: 2 ripe peaches, 1 ball burrata, handful basil, 1 tbsp olive oil, balsamic glaze, black pepper
Method: Halve and stone peaches. Grill cut side down 3 minutes until charred. Arrange on plate. Tear burrata over top. Basil, oil, balsamic, pepper.
Peach & Prosciutto Salad
Sweet, salty, 5 minutes.
Ingredients: 2 peaches, 6 slices prosciutto, handful rocket, shaved parmesan, 1 tbsp olive oil, squeeze lemon
Method: Slice peaches. Arrange with prosciutto and rocket. Shave parmesan. Dress with oil and lemon.
Peach Crumble
The stone fruit crumble. Serves 4.
Ingredients: 4 peaches, 1 tbsp sugar, squeeze lemon, 80g oats, 60g flour, 60g brown sugar, 50g cold butter
Method: Slice peaches into a baking dish. Toss with sugar and lemon. Rub oats, flour, sugar, and butter together until crumbly. Scatter over fruit. Bake 180C for 25 min.
Nutrition
One medium peach provides 17% of your daily vitamin C, 10% of your vitamin A, and 2g of fibre. Only 58 calories. The yellow flesh is rich in beta-carotene. White peaches have less vitamin A but higher antioxidant content. One of the lowest-calorie fruits that still tastes like dessert.