Recipe: Texas Stone Fruit Salad

A ripe and juicy peach, plum, nectarine, or apricot is a marvel. All together they form a beautiful medley — yellow, white, purple, and orange — and are a symphony of flavors. Come summer, the first stone fruits usher in a long and delicious season, opening the door to possibility. Picking your own locally means you have a better chance of encountering them at peak ripeness. Not to mention supporting growers for whom they are both a livelihood and a passion.

You can smoke, grill, pickle, or bake stone fruits. They melt into a cobbler. And everyone knows that these beauties are excellent over ice cream. But I love deliciously fragrant stone fruit in a summer salad.

This simple salad, featuring serrano peppers, basil, burrata, and pistachio dust, is an easy summer dish for when stone fruits are ripe and abundant. It has the jolt of spicy, hot-weather serrano flavor; the sweetness of local honey; and the zing of lemon or lime. The bottom line is that we can look forward to this dish to effortlessly capture a glimpse of the season. Because in Texas, there’s nothing like the glory of a peach … or nectarine or apricot or plum.

Pro tip: Look for ripe, flavorful fruits that aren’t overly soft. That way, they’ll maintain structure when tossed with all the other ingredients.

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

• 4 ripe but firm peaches or nectarines, cut into pieces
• 4 ripe but firm plums and/or apricots, cut into pieces
• Juice and finely grated zest of one lemon or lime
• Pinch of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons sherry or white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon local honey
• 1–2 fresh serrano peppers, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn (plus more for garnish)
• 1/4 cup chopped, roasted pistachios
• 1 8-ounce fresh burrata, quartered

Method

Step 1

In a large bowl, toss the stone fruit with the juice, zest, and salt and set aside for 5 minutes. Add the sherry or vinegar, oil, and honey and toss. Add the serrano peppers and basil and toss.

Step 2

Spread salad over a serving platter, scatter with the reserved basil and chopped pistachios. Dollop the burrata over the salad and serve.

Keep in mind, the fruit (except the apricots, which tend to oxidize quickly) can be sliced one day ahead if tossed with lemon or lime juice and refrigerated in an airtight container.

Here are 10 more peachy recipes for summer.