“In summertime, if you have burrata or something with tomato, you can play a bit with rosé.”

^{-Pierre-Marie Faure, head sommelier at Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, quoted in Esquire}

This is another innovative recipe inspired by my visit to Granvia Uno in Madrid (see The Dracula). Unfortunately it involves peeling and seeding the tomatoes which is something I usually never do on principal – Life Is Too Short, and there is goodness in the skin. Nevertheless for this recipe it is essential – and it is worth it. It’s different, it’s intriguing, it’s got real flavour.

For the quickest and easiest way to peel the tomatoes go to this post.

For other ideas for what to do with truffle honey, go to this post.

For how to make your own pesto, go to this post.

To buy fresh burrata from a London dairy – to die for – go to La Latteria.

Recipe for burrata with pesto and truffle honey

For two as a lunch, or four (or possibly six depending on the size of the burrata) as a starter

Ingredients

• 1 burrata cheese – 280g/10 oz gross weight; 125g/4 oz drained weight
• 4 generously medium tomatoes grown in a place with sun (ie not The Netherlands). 
• 4 tbsp pesto (ideally fresh if you can get it)
• 2 generous teasp truffle honey (if you don’t have truffle honey you could substitute with a mix of good quality truffle oil and ordinary honey, but it will not be quite the same)

• 4 tbsp olive oil, or walnut oil
• 4 teasp good quality balsamic vinegar
• Smoked salt

• Crusty bread (useful for mopping if this is a lunch) or mini breadsticks (if you are being smart and it’s a starter) to serve

Method

1. Peel, deseed and chop the tomatoes into small dice. By using larger tomatoes they will be quicker to peel – but, as mentioned above, go here to see how to do this quickly. Use a serrated tomato knife. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.
2. Spoon the tomato to make a bed on a deepish plate.
3. Drain the burrata and cut it into quarters if making a starter, or half for a lunch (you include the slightly rubbery outer skin)  – place on top of the tomato. You may need to wedge the burrata with a little tomato to keep it in place.
4. Pour the balsamic dressing over the tomato.
5. Spoon the pesto over the burrata.
6. Pour over the honey.
7. You can make this ahead of time to allow the flavours to all meld together.