Burrata, parma ham and grilled apricot salad, with summer herb and avocado dressing
I don’t think this recipe needs much introduction. I mean, who doesn’t love burrata? It’s cheesy, its creamy, it goes with so many other delicious things. Actually, a burrata makes a lovely starter just on its own drizzled with good quality olive oil, sprinkled with flaky salt and served with some bread or grissini. Here, I have paired the burrata with lots of beautiful summery flavours to create a very quick and simple sharing starter. This is ideal for the beginning of a summer meal with lots of friends as it requires very little preparation and is a definite crowd pleaser.
Ingredients
Serves 8
For the dressing
20g basil (leaves picked from stalks)
20g parsley
15g tarragon (leaves picked from stalks)
½ small ripe avocado
150ml olive oil
Juice from ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
For the salad
1 tbsp olive oil
8 apricots
4 balls of burrata
10 slices of parma ham
160g Mixed salad leaves (such as rocket, baby spinach, and lambs lettuce)
1. First, prepare the salad dressing. Put all of the herbs, the and avocado into a food processor and blitz until combined. Whilst doing this, gradually drizzle in the olive oil, until it all comes together into a thick(ish) but still runny dressing.
2. Transfer the dressing into a bowl and squeese in the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Set to one side.
3. Cut the apricots in half lengthways, and remove the stones, then toss them in a little olive oil and season.
4. Heat a griddle pan (a good frying pan will do if you don’t have one but the griddle pan will give nice char lines on the apricots). Turn down to a medium heat.
5. Griddle the apricots cut side down for 1 min, then turn them over and griddle skin side down for a further 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside.
6. Next, assemble your salad. This is intended to be a sharing starter, so find the biggest plate, or board you can find.
7. Start by placing the salad leaves on the plate / board as the first layer. Then add your burrata balls, spread across the whole plate so that each of your guests will be able to reach at least one of them. Then spread the slices of parma ham, and the grilled apricots all over, making sure there’s a little bit of everything on each part of the sharing plate. Finally, add little dollops of the dressing all over the platter. You can also serve extra dressing in a separate bowl alongside the salad in case your guests would like to add more.
