Delicious tomato salad with burrata, grilled peaches and homemade pesto is a perfect choice at any time of the year. This dish could be served as an evening appetizer or as a light and healthy salad for lunch.
We all know that tomato salad with silky and creamy burrata is a match made in heaven. It has a perfect balance of flavours with just two ingredients.
This does also mean that any drop in the quality of those products will affect the taste! Due to this, Caprese salad (or tomato salad) is not about the technique, but it’s all about the produce.
I think, by now, all of you know my admiration and love for local, seasonal and delicious products. It was difficult to say goodbye to my family garden and move here to London. I still remember that shock in the supermarket seeing all those veggies wrapped in plastic, without any fragrance or flavour. Thankfully, year after year, I built my own shopping circuit and I discovered places where I could find the best price and quality of products (plus eco-friendly assortments and solutions!). It might sound crazy, but sometimes I need to visit 5-7 different stores to finish my weekly shopping.
Pesto sauce
One of the products I recently bought during this weekly shopping trip was cashew nuts from the bulk store. I planned to use them for my granola and add them to pesto sauce. I know, I know, you’re about to say that I have to use pine nuts! However, even though pine nuts are on the original recipe, you can easily swap ingredients.
The main principle is: anything green (basil, parsley, carrot leaves and etc) + hard cheese (parmesan, pecorino, mature chaddar) + nuts (pine nuts, cashews, almonds) + olive oil. That’s it. You can swap the ingredients to have a different result and use any leftovers from your kitchen.
The Tomato Stall – perfect for the tomato salad
This salad in the autumn months is no accident. Tomatoes are always tricky. However, this summer I discovered The Tomato Stall on Ocado. I’m now in love with their juicy, sweet and delicious tomatoes!
The Tomato Stall is the digital home of talented and innovative growers from the Isle of Wight… and it’s the place to go to for the most flavoursome British fruits. Tomatoes are grown in the enormous greenhouses of the rich and fertile Arreton Valley. They benefit from the island’s sunny maritime climate and are only hand-picked once ripened to their peak and bursting with flavour. To be honest, I was blown away by the taste. You won’t be able to find any better tomatoes for this salad (unless you picked them from your garden). Give them a go and let me know what you think!
P.S, this is not an ad. I just truly love these products and want to share them with you.
Recipe
Salad:
300g tomatoes
1 burrata
2 peaches
Basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Pesto:
A bunch of basil leaves
Olive oil
50g parmesan cheese
50g cashews
A pinch of salt
- Prepare the pesto sauce: pound the basil leaves in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt to a paste. Add the parmesan cheese and cashews to the mixture and pound them together. Drizzle some olive oil. Season it to your liking.
- Prepare the salad: cut the tomatoes into small chunks and arrange them on a plate. Grill the peaches slices and add them to the tomatoes. Finish the salad with burrata and some fresh basil leaves.
- Serve the salad with homemade pesto sauce.
