There are combinations that are fabulous, resulting in a delicious dish full of flavors. One of them is cheese with tomato and pesto, which can be served as an appetizer with some slices of toasted bread or as a perfect starter. This burrata with colorful cherry tomato salad and homemade pesto is an ideal dish.
You know that in summer I like quick and uncomplicated recipes. And as you can see, today's is very easy and you'll have it ready in the blink of an eye. You can prepare the pesto in advance (I explain how to make it in the recipe) and keep it in the fridge ready to use, or if you make enough you can store it in jars in the freezer to use when needed. You can also buy it, but it's really very simple to make and homemade pesto is unbeatable.
And since we want a summery dish, what better than to fill it with color! For that, just choose cherry tomatoes of different varieties and colors, which along with the white of the burrata and the green of the pesto will brighten this dish, perfect for any meal of the day.
Let's go with the recipe for this salad that comes with a bonus, since it also includes the homemade pesto recipe.
Ingredients
For the salad
- Fresh burrata (one ball 125-150 g)
- 150 g of cherry tomatoes of different varieties and colors
- Homemade pesto sauce*
- A few radishes (4 or 5)
- A few fresh basil leaves
*For the homemade pesto sauce
- 50 g of basil
- 1 clove of garlic
- 30 g of grated Parmesan cheese
- 30 g of pine nuts
- 175 ml of extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
- Peel the garlic and put it in a hand chopper (either a pull-string hand chopper, like the Ingenio de Tefal or an electric one, like the WMF chopper) and chop for about 5 seconds.
- Add the basil and garlic to the chopper and chop for 3 more seconds.
- Place the remaining ingredients in the chopper and blend them for about 10 seconds. Reserve the sauce. (For a slightly more intense sauce, toast the pine nuts first; you'll find more details in Notes).
- Wash and slice the radishes thinly. Wash and halve or quarter the larger cherry tomatoes.
- On a pretty tray (like the one from porcelain Revol) or a large plate arrange the sliced radishes so they are spread out.
- Place the whole and halved cherry tomatoes on top of the radish slices.
- Place the burrata on the tray, over the tomatoes, and cut it slightly so it stays slightly open.
- Put some basil leaves on top (if they are very large, tear them).
- With a spoon, distribute the pesto sauce generously over the salad.
- Serve as is or accompanied by a good homemade bread, or some slices of toasted bread*.
Notes- Traditional pesto sauce is made with raw pine nuts, that is, fresh and untoasted. Raw pine nuts give the sauce a milder, more delicate flavor. However, some prefer to use toasted pine nuts to give the pesto a deeper, toasted flavor. If that's your case, simply preheat the oven to 200 °C and toast the pine nuts on a baking tray for 10 minutes until they are golden and let them cool, or you can toast them in a pan, stirring constantly.
- You can accompany the salad, in addition to freshly baked bread, with some toasts (with the pesto, the cherries and the burrata you can make delicious little bites for each mouthful). Or even garlic bread toasts. Making them is very simple:
- Slice a baguette into slices about 2 cm thick.
- Arrange them on a tray and put them in the oven, previously heated to 200 °C (you can do this at the same time as you toast the pine nuts for the pesto).
- Let them toast for 10 minutes and flip them. Let them toast 10 more minutes or until you see they are golden.
- Take them out of the oven and when they are cool enough not to burn you, rub a clove of garlic over each slice. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and they're ready to accompany the salad.
- You can use any salad tomato, whichever variety you prefer. With cherrys of different colors, the salad has a very vivid and cheerful coloring that \"feels\" very summery.
- Also, if you prefer, you can replace the burrata with mozzarella or with a fresh cheese you like (feta, Burgos cheese, mató or any soft cheese cut into cubes is a very good alternative).
- If you have leftover pesto, you can store it in the fridge or in the freezer without problem in an airtight container, like the Luigi Bormioli jars.
- Whether you serve it as an appetizer to share, as a first course, or as a side for meat or fish, it's a fabulous salad that you will surely make more than once.
