I live for peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums every summer. I admit, I have a thing for stone fruits, especially when combined with a soft meringue cake and pillowy coconut whipped cream. For this recipe, I sometimes macerate the peaches (or other fruit) in sugar and wine.

The wine is, of course, optional, but tradition is hard to break. To me, it takes me back to my summers spent in Italy as a kid, where dessert at restaurants was often whole peaches floating in a big bowl filled with ice and ice water served alongside chilled, crisp white wine meant for dunking.

Go ahead and leave the wine out, if you prefer, and just macerate the fruit in the sugar to release some of the peach juices.