Easy-to-eat, juicy wonders: flat peaches are a summer highlight in France

Market stalls across France groan under the weight of juicy fruits throughout August, with many proudly supplied by local producers – everything from melons to apricots, Mirabelle plums to figs, and blueberries to blackcurrants demanding the attention and euros of canny shoppers.

Of all these succulent, sun-kissed options, peaches are the firm (though not too firm) favourite of your Food noter.

It is rare that a single piece of fruit lingers in the memory, but I recall with enduring fondness the first time I ever saw, then ate, a flat white peach.

I was visiting the Riviera town of Antibes and arrived at the wonderful producer’s market that spills out from la halle du cours Masséna. A more colourful and vibrant scene you could not imagine.

Read more: Recipe: a seasonal apricot and blackberry ‘sunflower’ galette

Fruit stall

Peckish before lunch on a sweltering summer’s day, and in need of the kind of refreshment only a fleshy peach can provide, I made a beeline for the fruit stall with the longest queue – the modus operandi of any crafty market goer.

Alongside the usual round, fuzzy peaches and smooth-skinned nectarines, I spotted a smaller pile of what looked like squashed fruit. I imagined these unusually-shaped oddities to be leftovers being sold on the cheap after failing to meet an obscure or onerous European Union peach specification.

I tucked in regardless and was instantly mesmerised by the moist moreishness of my newly found delicacy, each mouthful a treat. The white flesh of these disc-shaped delights was far juicier and sweeter than its round, orange-fleshed counterpart – though they share the same reddish-orange exterior colour with yellow tints.

Flat peaches are a genetic mutation of the standard peach, originating in China and becoming popular in Europe in the 1970s.

‘Doughnut peach’

But beyond the gustatory delights of my new BFF (best fruit forever) – called Prunus persica var. platycarpa, sometimes nicknamed ‘Saturn’, ‘doughnut’ or ‘UFO’ peach – there was a practical benefit to eating this flattened-out version.

Traditional peaches are the picnicker’s nemesis, impossible to hold and eat without dribbling juice down one’s chin or, even worse, onto the pristine white shirt or trousers donned for a Riviera market wander. But the doughnut peach presents no such dilemma – it is easy to grip and drip-free. And the white flesh detaches easily from the stone (noyau), making it ideal finger fruit on the go.