This is a delicious summer salad, I have been making a salad of peaches, parma ham & mozzarella for years now, it makes a great lunch dish on a hot summer's day. I first got the idea from Jamie's book The Return of the Naked Chef, however after discovering how good chargrilled peaches are, this is my new favourite.
You can serve one peach each and serve it as a starter or 2 peaches each and serve it as a main course or put it all on a big sharing platter and let everyone dig in and help themselves.
The peaches are charred on a chargrill pan or bbq and served warm, have all the ingredients ready to go, so that as soon as the peaches are ready you can get everything on to the plate.
Ideal served with crusty bread and a nice cold glass of wine.
Ingredients:
4 ripe peaches or nectarines, halved & de-stoned
8 bocconcini balls or a large buffalo mozzarella torn into chunks
8 parma ham slices
A couple of handfuls of salad leaves (such as green sorrel, watercress, rocket)
1 handful of basil leaves, torn
Dressing:
1 banana shallot, finely chopped
1/2-1 red chilli, finely chopped (depending on taste)
30ml lemon juice
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp runny honey
Pinch each of salt & freshly ground black pepper
To finish:
1 handful of flaked almonds, toasted
A few mint leaves
Edible flowers such as chive flowers, rocket flowers, thyme or oregano flowers, whatever herb you have flowering in your garden
Method:
Heat a chargrill pan over a high heat (alternatively use a hot bbq), when very hot, brush cut side of each peach with a little oil and place cut side down onto hot chargrill pan. Leave to get chargrill marks, this should only take a few minutes if your pan is hot enough (if your peaches are ripe enough this will happen quickly, if your peaches aren't quite so ripe, you may wish to leave them a little longer, to soften slightly. The idea is for the peach to be warm and still retain its bite, not to cook the peach until it falls apart and is very soft.
4 ripe but still firm peaches or nectarines, a little oil for brushing |
Next make the dressing, mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and season with salt & pepper to taste. Taste and add a little more honey if not sweet enough or a little more lemon juice if too sweet.
1 finely chopped banana shallot, 1/2-1 finely chopped red chilli (according to taste), 30ml lemon juice, 100ml extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp runny honey, salt & freshly ground black pepper |
Scatter a few salad & basil leaves on each plate, arrange peach halves and parma ham slices, add bocconcini balls, spoon over dressing and sprinkle over almonds, mint & edible flowers, serve while peaches are still warm with crusty bread.
Salad leaves (such as green sorrel, watercress, rocket), 1 handful of basil leaves-torn, 8 parma ham slices, 8 bocconcini balls, handful of toasted flaked almonds, a few mint leaves, edible flowers |
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