Nice farm to table restaurants often offer salads similar to this one in the summer. Peaches and tomatoes are both in their seasonal prime, and they work well together. The restaurant versions often have some nice touches that aren’t practical for the home kitchen. And while those touches are nice, this salad is 90% as good as restaurant versions, and super simple to pull together.
The most complex aspect of the dish is whipping basil and ricotta. First, let me mention that ricottas differ greatly from producer to producer. Some ricottas are literally pourable, others are spoonable, and really good ones are actually sliceable. The loosest ricottas are whippable by themselves. The more solid versions will need a little liquid to help thin them out. That liquid can be milk, cream or olive oil. I used an immersion blender to do the whipping. I use a pint-sized, wide-mouthed mason jar as the vessel. I add the ricotta, liquid and roughly chopped basil into the jar, and then use an immersion blender to quickly whip it up into a soft, spreadable, basil-ricotta bunch of goodness. A mini-food processor would be another option. A full-sized food processor would also work, but it would be more to clean up. A blender could work, but you would have to make it with more liquid than I’d like. And it would also be a bigger thing to clean up for such a small project. And, off course, a fork could be used to mash the ricotta, blend in the liquid and basil, and then give it a final whip.
Whether you choose to peel your peaches or not is up to you. I usually leave the peels intact. I’ve found that the restaurants usually do the same. Also, if you are making this salad early in the season, when the peach varieties are cling stone, it is difficult to cut the peaches into nice, pretty wedges. Loose stone peaches are much easier to cut in half, remove the pit, and then cut into wedges.
Peach and Tomato Salad with Whipped Basil Ricotta
Ingredients
- 1 lb heirloom slicing tomatoes
- 1 lb fresh, ripe peaches
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- cream, milk or olive oil see note
- 15 leaves basil about 12 grams
- good balsamic vinegar
- salt
- white pepper black pepper can substitute
Instructions
- Stack the basil leaves and slice thinly into chiffonade.
- Whip together the ricotta, optional liquid, and half of the basil. This can be done with an immersion blender, or a food processor, or by hand mashing and then whipping with a fork.
- Cut the tomato into wedges, removing the core as you slice.
- Optionally peel the peaches, and cut the peaches into wedges of similar size as the tomatoes.
- To plate, evenly divide the whipped ricotta between six salad plates, Using the back of the spoon, spread the whipped ricotta into a circular bed for the rest of the salad. Next lie alternating wedges of tomato and peach around the bed of ricotta. Season lightly with salt and white pepper. Spread the remaining basil on top of the plates. Finally drizzle some good balsamic vinegar over the salads.
