Peach & Tomato Salad, two ways in Italy

Peach & Tomato Salad, two ways – one all Italian with torn burrata and a basil-walnut dressing, the other dressed up fattoush style, diced with cucumber, herbs and za’atar on a bed of hummus. Jump to Recipe 

It’s been a little while since the last recipe over here – a month has flown past since I wrote about wrapping up a summer term in Oxford with a spring lemon & elderflower loaf and boarded a plane to Barcelona. My first European summer  – well, I can see what the fuss is about. Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, Venice. Certainly the tourist trail, but I’ve never been to Italy so it sort of had to be done, didn’t it? And despite the crowds (of which there were many, but which can be mostly avoided with a bit of planning), and despite the heat (don’t fight it, just enjoy it – sweatiness included), it was absolutely wonderful. 

I am a creature of habit when it comes to exploring a new city. Views, food, coffee and history. Each place is marked by the local produce market, explored early morning before the day’s humidity descends: Barcelona’s La Boqueria filled with racks of serrano jamon and rainbow stacks of blitzed fruit smoothies; mounds of vibrant zucchini flowers, shiny eggplant and tomatoes the size of my fist in Florence’s Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio; silvery sardines, octopus and swordfish fresh from the boat in Venice’s Rialto. The indulgent pastry and coffee ritual in Italy is another I appreciate – cappuccino or double espresso, vanilla custard filled cornetto or flaky sfogliatelle eaten counterside at Roscioli. Traditional Venetian almond crusted pastries (the Sant’Ubaldo) and chocolate twisted krantz cakes at Dal Mas. Post-market Florentine sfloglia filled with pear, chocolate and ricotta at Pasticceria Nencioni. Lots of walking. Lots of stairs – views over Barcelona from the wonderland of Park Guell, a moment of quiet above the bustle of Florence at Palazzo Vecchio, standing in the wind at San Giorgio Maggiore watching the late-afternoon sun bouncing off waves and boat traffic.  

I am planning on uploading photographs and favourite places from the trip in the next few weeks, but for the moment you can find a photo diary and read a bit about that first week in Barcelona here.

This summery peach, tomato & avocado salad was one I made during our time in Monterosso, Cinque Terre. The morning market was just opening when we loaded up brown paper bags full of juicy yellow peaches, fumbled our way through asking for burrata and pinenuts in mangled Italian (mostly english, to be honest) and bought scoops of vibrantly green local genovese pesto. Then it was a day of views, hiking up and down between the five coastal villages. I’ll remember most clearly the olive trees and grape vines, the radiating heat and dripping sweat, the glimpses of colourful houses and ferries leaving white wash streaks across the ocean down below. It was quiet, save for insects, and we were mostly alone – apparently not many tourists walk the high paths. We stopped for ricotta cream filled croissants and double espressos in Vernazza (Il pirata delle 5 terre) before jumping off the rocks to cool off, and devoured scoops of creamy olive oil & almond gelato in Riomaggiore. Thirty kilometres in the legs later and back in our little yellow and stone airbnb kitchen that evening, I put together plates of roughly chopped tomatoes and peaches, dolloped with torn burrata, toasted pine nuts and a lemon pesto dressing, a side of golden grilled zucchini and eggplant. (Pipe dreams of permanently relocating to a small Italian village were entertained.)

I’d never really used peaches in a savoury context until last summer when I made this peach & tomato salad for friends, and now I can’t get enough of it. It’s so simple it hardly needs a recipe, but here’s one for you anyway. The original was all Italian – basil and prosciutto, fresh cheese and olive oil –  but lately I’ve been changing it up a bit with a more Israeli edge, like a fattoush. Dicing through crisp lebanese cucumbers and finely chopped mint and parsley, tangy with lemon juice and za’atar, served up on a bed of creamy hummus with soft pita for all the scooping. It’s infinitely adaptable – next time I want to try grilled corn. Any other ideas?