Burrata with Fruit, Pesto & Crostini

 

Hot summer evenings practically beg for snacking dinners that you can get on the table without ever turning on the stove. This simple combination is the perfect answer; it doesn’t require anything other than a food processor (or some premade pesto) and a good knife, but it’s elegant enough to feel really special. By pairing creamy burrata with an assortment of sweet fresh fruit, and then drizzling it all with a quick pesto-based sauce, you can get all the sweet, bright, sharp, and creamy flavors into one bite. Eat this with some sliced baguette, toasted or not. This works equally well with fall fruit like figs, soft pears, sliced red grapes, and even jellylike pieces of Hachiya persimmon.

 

⅓ of a baguette

¼ C. (60 ml) pesto, homemade or store-bought

½ tsp. red wine vinegar

Extra-virgin olive oil

One 4½-ounce (130 g) ball of burrata

Assorted very ripe fruit (ideally a mix, such as 1 peach, 1 or 2 apricots, some figs, and a few cherries)

Honey

Flaky sea salt

 

Cut the baguette into ½-inch (1.3 cm) slices and toast them until golden and slightly crunchy, if you like. Put the pesto into a small bowl and stir in the vinegar. Add olive oil as needed to turn the pesto into a smooth sauce that you can drizzle from a spoon. Arrange the burrata in the center of a dinner plate, and gently tear it open to expose the cream in the center. Pit the fruit as needed and cut it into pieces. Arrange the fruit around the burrata. Drizzle as much pesto sauce as you want over the cheese and fruit, then drizzle on some olive oil and a few thin lashings of honey. Sprinkle sea salt on top and enjoy with extra pesto on the side.