Warm Nectarine Salad with Burrata
I love fresh nectarines, especially when they are in season. I also love fresh burrata! The weather has been exceptionally wonderful in Toronto this time of the year, so I decided to make a fresh warm salad with pine nuts, fresh burrata cheese and grilled nectarines. It was my first time grilling fruit, so I wasn’t sure how that would go, but it went pretty well!
I found this recipe via Spruce Eats - so it’s not my own recipe by any means. The only thing that I switched were gem leaves for arugula, and cherry tomatoes for kumato tomatoes. All credit goes to the wonderful creators of Spruce Eats… I love all their recipes!
This recipe below serves 3 people with left over for seconds! Here’s what you will need:
2 kumato tomatoes
1 medium size nectarine
arugula leaves
2 table spoons of pine nuts
1/2 cup of chopped basil
2 table spoons of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 clove of raw garlic
4 table spoons of olive oil
1 Italian burrata
Salt and pepper
Now, let’s prep the pesto sauce:
Add 1/2 cup of basil leaves, 1/2 chopped garlic clove in a food processor and chop it up
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and continue to process the ingredients
Once you see that basil and garlic has a coarse blended consistency, add 1 tablespoon of pine nuts, 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon of olive oil followed by pinches of salt and pepper. Press chop or grind on the food processor and let it work it’s magic.
Scrape the pesto sauce off the sides of the food processor and store in a small container. Add some more olive oil (1 table spoon) and mix the pesto mixture with the spoon to get a smoother consistency.
Once the pesto sauce is done, it’s time to make base of the salad and grill the nectarines.
Take a serving dish (I like to use a rectangular dish, as opposed to a regular salad bowl) and line the plate for arugula leaves.
Cut up the two kumato tomatoes into thin quarterly slices and distribute them evenly across the plate.
Cut one nectarine in quarterly slices, and take out the pit.
Heat up a small skillet on M-H heat and place the slices on the skillet once its warm
Turn down the heat to medium, and heat up the slices for 3-4 minutes each side. Don’t turn it over too soon, let the fruit brown a bit on each side. You’ll know it’s ready because the slices will get browned.
Once both sides are browned, take them off the skillet with a non stick spatula and place them around the dish. You can also cut up each slide in half and spread them generously throughout the plate
Remove the buffalo burrata from it’s water sac, and pat it dry with a paper towel.
Gently place the burrata in the middle of the dish, on top of the arugula leaves. Add the pesto sauce on top of the cheese, and throughout the plate. Don’t overpower the plate with sauce, you just a need a little bit to give it a kick.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil slightly over the dish and garnish with basil leaves and the remaining 1 table spoon of pine nuts. You can add balsamic vinegar glaze if you like, I chose not to.
Serve fresh with lots of love for your family and friends!
