There’s nothing quite like a creamy burrata caprese salad with the bite of the basil and sweet tomatoes. But place it on a bed of bitter arugula, add peaches, vivid blueberry vinaigrette and shards of cracked pepper and now you’ve got yourself a showstopper with fruity complexity.
prep: 15 mins
Cook time: 0 mins
total: 15 mins
What you’ll love about this recipe!
🫐 Classic caprese elements: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil form the basis of the beloved caprese salad, and these elements are included in this recipe.
🫐 Fruity complexity: adding peaches to the caprese salad makes it more substantial, adds tang and drizzling my blueberry vinaigrette over the top in place of the usual olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar gives it an modern take with incredible flavor.
🫐 More bite: adding in the arugula, which so many love, and the rough shards of cracked pepper give the salad it’s final touch of bite and bitter, welcome tastes to compliment the sweetness of the tomatoes and fruit and the creamy burrata.
🫐 Beauty: Nothing wrong with a beautiful salad, and this one delivers.
Ingredient notes
- Burrata: similar to fresh mozzarella, but softer. Fresh mozzarella is stretched and then filled with cream and mozzarella to create the creamy pouches that gently burst when broken over a salad. Can sub fresh mozzarella.
- Tomatoes: I feature heirloom cherry and regular sized tomatoes for their great variety in color, but sub any tomatoes you can get. Yellow cherry tomatoes are pretty as well. Go for ripe and local tomatoes versus hard tomatoes shipped in from afar which will disappoint with their spongy texture and absent flavor.
- Peaches: Aim for close to ripe fruit here, so they are sweet. Can sub nectarines which are just like peaches but without the peach fuzz.
- Arugula: This somewhat bitter, but also nutty green as a great pairing with the sweet peaches and tomatoes. Sub watercress or fresh basil leaves if you want/need.
- Blueberry Basil Vinaigrette: adding blueberries (frozen or fresh, doesn’t matter) with fresh basil, to a blender with pantry ingredients gives you the showstopping purple/pink dressing that makes this salad really stand apart.
What is burrata?
Burrata is like fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is stretched out and formed into a round pouch filled with more mozzarella and cream so that when you break into the ball of burrata, the creamy fresh mozzarella oozes out slowly. It’s delicate and of course, very creamy.
Above: the blueberry vinaigrette ingredients are simply blended until smooth, then the vinaigrette is chilled until served.
Step by step instructions
As shown above, the vinaigrette ingredients are measured out and placed in a blender for blitzing into a smooth purple dressing. No need to finely chop the shallot or garlic.
With your vinaigrette chilling, you are free to cut the peaches in wedges, slice the tomatoes and arrange the salad on a serving platter, as shown at the top of the post. It couldn’t be simpler. The burrata rounds are picked up gingerly and softly broken and placed around the salad, then the entire salad is drizzled with the blueberry vinaigrette.
The final touches are a few fresh basil leaves (you’ll see I had some purple basil on hand as well from the garden) and coarsely ground black pepper. Biting into a shard of coarsely ground pepper versus a finely ground powder, creates a great contrast to the other sweet and bright elements of the salad.
Above: The simplicity of this salad, is punctuated with the tangy and bright blueberry vinaigrette with basil.
Above: if you don’t have the peaches or arugula on hand, you can still create a showstopping salad with this vinaigrette, and the classic caprese ingredients of burrata (or fresh mozzarella), tomatoes and basil. You can’t go wrong!
Check out Sofa’s Stone Fruit Salad with Root Veg and Blueberry Basil Vinaigrette for another way to use this wonderful vinaigrette
Or try a different type of salad such as Sofa’s Elote Pasta Salad.
Enter your email. Plus, get my monthly recipe recap!
Burrata Caprese with Peaches, Arugula and Blueberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Blueberry vinaigrette ingredients
- 1/4 cup frozen blueberries (or 1/3 cup fresh)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/2 clove garlic (use full if quite small)
- 1/2 large shallot ( )
- 12 leaves fresh basil (plus extra to garnish salad)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (sub honey)
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Salad ingredients
- 8 oz burrata (see notes)
- 2 heirloom tomatoes (see notes)
- 1/2 carton cherry tomatoes
- 2 peaches (can sub nectarines or plums)
- 2 cups arugula
- coarsely ground black pepper (to garnish)
- flaky sea salt (to garnish)
Method:
Make the vinaigrette
- Add all ingredients to a blender and blitz until the vinaigrette emulsifies and the blueberries are completely pureed. This will mean there are little to no bits of blueberry skin as specs, and the liquid will be pure purple. Set aside to chill. See notes.
Finish Salad
- Slice the tomatoes, and cut peaches into wedges
- Create a bed of arugula on serving platter, then arrange tomatoes and peaches around arugula. Once ready to serve, break up the 8 oz of burrata (2-4 balls, depending on size) over the salad, keeping them mostly intact versus completely breaking them apart. It tastes best if you get a good bite of the burrata versus a watery mix if it is broken down too much when plated.
- Drizzle the salad with the blueberry vinaigrette to your liking, and garnish with fresh basil leaves and coarsely ground black pepper and flaky sea salt.
