Burrata with Cherries and Pistachio Pesto

Several weeks ago I saw a post on Instagram from Sarah from The Delicious enjoying a meal of this description. Her feed is stunning by the way, full of colourful fresh healthy food. Anyway, I knew I had to make it myself. I have already waxed lyrical about my love of burrata here and I probably have bored you to tears about cherries, so it was obvious that I was going to love this.

What I didn’t expect was that himself would love it too. “The cherries are great with it!” Well, colour me smug. I urge you to give this a try while cherries are still easily available. I’ll be making this Burrata with Cherries and Pistachio Pesto a few more times this Summer. Enjoy with a glass of chilled white wine.

Useful tips & links:

Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese filled with cream, very healthy! If you can’t get it, and it is not always readily available, use a good quality mozzarella cheese instead.
I have used pistachios here as per the original post I saw on Instagram. This is good for a few reasons but mainly they are much cheaper to buy than pine nuts and they help to give the pesto it’s vibrant green colour. Alternatively, Jennifer Opperman has a recipe on her gorgeous blog for Hazelnut Pesto where she blanches her basil leaves to keep them a bright green.
I used preserved lemons to flavour the pesto. If you don’t have them, gradually add some freshly squeezed lemon juice instead.
Do not stress about the pesto recipe, taste as you go and adjust to suit your own palate. The recipe here makes a whole jar of pesto, you will only need a couple of spoons of it. The pesto keeps in the fridge for about a week and you can also freeze it.
Leftover pesto can be used in so many ways but to make a simple quick meal, stir some into cooked pasta like this beautiful Pea and Pistachio Pesto from of the Tanya of The Tiny Vegan Kitchen.

Pistachio Pesto - A Cookbook Collection — *The Pistachio Pesto – that colour!*

Burrata with Cherries and Pistachio Pesto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 x 250g Burrata
300g of cherries, stoned and halved
4 slices of sourdough toast
Pistachio pesto (below)

Pistachio Pesto

50g of shelled pistachio nuts
A large bunch of basil leaves, approximately 30g of leaves
1 clove of garlic
175ml of good quality olive oil
¼ of a preserved lemon
30g of freshly grated parmesan cheese
Black pepper

Method:

Make the pesto first. Put the shelled pistachio nuts into a mini food processor and blitz until they are roughly chopped. Then add the basil leaves, garlic, lemon and half of the olive oil. Blitz and slowly add the remaining oil until you have the consistency you like.
Taste the pesto and add more lemon if you like. Pour it into a bowl and add the grated cheese. Stir until fully combined and add some black pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed but you should not need any salt due to the parmesan.
Store the pesto with a thin layer of olive oil on top in an airtight jar in the fridge until you are ready to use it. It will keep for several days in the fridge.
When ready to serve, bring all of your ingredients up to room temperature. Toast the bread and serve with the cherries, burrata and a generous serving of the pesto on top.