Late-summer recipes with stone fruit

Fiona Hugues reaps the rewards of a long hot summer with luscious stone fruit in salads, cakes and a magnificent tart, plus a fresh new take on apricot chicken.

Please don’t make me choose a favourite season; I adore them all – spring and its fresh baby greens, summer dining outdoors on a balmy night, and autumn… perhaps you have slightly more of my heart than the rest. Orchard trees groaning with fruit, juicy sweet plums, buxom pears, walnuts – all ready for eating or bottling – and meals full of seductive earthy flavours to be enjoyed in the cooler evenings.

The industrious, and rather primal, urge arrives not only to savour this bounty but to squirrel away these flavours in readiness for the winter months ahead, an impulse that prompts all kinds of kitchen inspiration.

This collection of recipes – replete with stonefruit, texture and flavour – contain all my favourites for this exact time of year as we squeeze the last drop out of summer and turn expectantly towards autumn’s enticing fare.

Recipes and styling by Fiona Hugues. Photography by Jani Shepherd. Gatherum Collectif.