I love this salad! It’s like an explosion of summer in your mouth: soft, sweet cheese and crispy green apples, joined with honey and balsamic vinaigrette, topped with crunchy pine nuts and strengthened by the fragrant, earthy taste of microgreens. I wonder if it’s possible for food to affect the equilibrium, because it made me a little dizzy when I first tasted it. All flavor sensors firing in exaltation can do that to a person!
I take no credit for its creation; my daughter came up with it, based on her very different southern California eating patterns, and, I have to say, they may be on to something out there. This is a wonderful lunch entrée, or a spectacular first course before a special meal. The burrata is a bit of a splurge, but it’s not prohibitively expensive to make otherwise, and it couldn’t be faster. If you don’t toast the pinenuts, you can assemble this in five minutes flat. I used what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite serving dishes: an old stone bowl that looks as though it’s seen a couple hundred years of use. No matter what kind of food you put in the bowl, it takes on a certain gravitas and primitive elegance; a scrambled egg looks exotic in a stone bowl. (I found it on Etsy, if you’re wondering, and there are others still available for sale.) A venerable bowl, some excellent cheese, complementary ingredients, and maybe a chilled rose – it’s like stepping into a Renaissance still life and becoming one with the art of it. Enjoy!
Burrata and Apple Microgreens Salad
Prep time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 1 4-ounce round of burrata mozzarella
- 1 Granny Smith apple
- ½ cup pinenuts, toasted
- 1 cup microgreens (I used flat leaf parsley, sorrel, purple basil and sunflower sprouts)
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinaigrette
- 1 tablespoon light honey
Directions
- Remove burrata from container and allow to drain on a cutting board to remove excess moisture.
- Toast the pinenuts in a sm
- all, dry frying pan for five minutes until golden brown. Set aside.
- On a dinner plate, arrange burrata in the middle, and sprinkle with microgreens. Cut apple into slender wedges and arrange around the burrata.
- Slice through the burrata so that it gently falls open on the plate. Sprinkle with pinenuts.
- Using a teaspoon, dot the balsamic vinaigrette around the salad. Drizzle burrata with honey. Serve
