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This nectarine burrata salad with tomatoes is summer in a bowl. Sweet nectarines, juicy tomatoes, and creamy burrata come together with garlic croutons and pickled shallots.
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What makes this dish special
As a private chef who cooks for the same families regularly, it can be challenging to constantly come up with new dishes. One family in particular always requests salads with their meals. In order to keep it exciting, I try to come up with different combinations of ingredients and salad dressings, like this fall harvest apple salad, modern day Caesar salad, and fattoush salad.
Since it's the summer, I decided to bring seasonal ingredients into the mix and create nectarine burrata salad with fresh tomatoes, garlic croutons, and pickled shallots. This may not be a conventional salad, but boy, is it delicious!
Recipe
Nectarine Burrata Salad
Ingredients
Pickled shallots
- 2 medium shallots thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon boiling water
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
Garlic croutons
- ½ cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 4 cups crusty bread lightly toasted (such as sourdough or baguette)
Salad dressing
- ¼ cup basil finely chopped
- ¼ cup parsley finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon oregano finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon capers
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- pinch of sugar
Remaining ingredients
- 3 tomatoes cut into wedges
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 3 ripe nectarines cut into wedges
- 8 ounces burrata
Instructions
- Pickle the shallots. Stir together the red wine vinegar, boiling water, sugar, and a pinch of salt until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture over the thinly sliced shallots. Let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat ½ cup olive oil with 4 cloves crushed garlic over low heat. Continue to gently simmer for 10 minutes or until the garlic cloves are browned and softened. Remove from heat and strain the oil, reserving the garlic for another use.
- Pour ¼ cup of the garlic olive over the lightly toasted bread, tossing to coat. Season the bread with salt and pepper and set aside. Cool the remaining oil.
- Whisk together the remaining garlic oil with the basil, parsley, oregano, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of sugar until well combined. Season the dressing with salt and pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and nectarines, gently stirring to combine. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Plate the marinated tomatoes and nectarines onto a serving plate. Top the fruits with the croutons, pickled shallots, and burrata, and drizzle any extra dressing on top. Serve immediately.
Notes
Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Prepare toppings
Sometimes you just have to skip the boring garden salads and go all out. This is where this nectarine burrata salad steps in. It's almost like a Panzanella because of the bread, but better because of the burrata.
Start preparing the salad by first pickling the shallots. We're going to do a quick pickle using boiling water for the liquid. By using boiling water, the shallots should be done in 30 minutes.
However, you can also pickle the shallots for several days in advance.
While the shallots are sitting in the vinegar mixture, infuse olive oil with smashed garlic cloves. Gently simmer the oil over low heat until the garlic is softened and browned.
Remove the garlic and pour half of the oil over the toasted bread.
The bread will soak in all that garlic flavor and become the best croutons. Seriously, I think I'm going to always make my croutons this way from now on.
Step 2: Make salad dressing
Now use the remaining garlic-infused oil to make the dressing. We're keeping it simple by making an herb balsamic dressing.
Chop the parsley, basil, and oregano, and whisk them together with the balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and juice, capers, infused oil, a pinch of sugar, salt, and pepper.
Now gently toss the fresh nectarines, tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes with the dressing. Let it sit for 10 minutes, marinating it in the dressing.
Assemble the nectarine burrata salad with the prepared croutons, burrata, and pickled shallots. Drizzle the dressing and juices from the fruit mixture on top and finish with freshly cracked black pepper.
The idea behind this salad is so simple, but the flavors are anything but. Each bite is bursting with freshness, tartness, and sweetness. Celebrating summer ingredients in the best way!
For more seasonal dishes, check out this full list of easy summer entertaining recipes with bold flavor!
Make-ahead and storage
- Make-ahead: You can make the salad dressing, garlic croutons, and pickled shallots ahead of time.
- Store: This salad is best enjoyed fresh, but you can store leftovers in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
More summer salad recipes
Looking for more summer salads? Try these:
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