Colourful, veg-driven plates of food sit at the heart of everything Alice Zaslavsky does. The Georgian-born chef has taken the Caucasus country’s produce-forward approach to cooking and made it accessible for an Australian (and international) audience, highlighting why salad and vegetable dishes needn’t be relegated to sides or afterthoughts.
The ethos behind Zaslavsky’s latest cookbook – the follow up to 2021’s In Praise of Veg, which was shortlisted for a James Beard award (the Oscars of the food world) – is splashed on the cover: Salad for Days. Salad for Days is Zaslavsky’s attempt to make “every day a salad day”, and with recipes for honeyed butternut risoni salad with marinated feta, fruit salad with salty-sweet macadamias and a spring veg salad with parmesan vinaigrette, that’s looking pretty likely. This recipe, for peaches with burrata, is also helping fulfil that promise – even if your peaches are less than juicy.
“As far as stone fruit, adjectives and emojis go, peaches promise playfulness and satisfaction,” she writes. “Even the hardest, hapless peach is not irredeemable. Lacklustre peaches can be dialled up with time on the barbeque, their natural zip and sweetness caramelising to something entirely more sophisticated.”
Zaslavsky says if you can’t get peaches – or they’re not up to snuff – plums and nectarines could take their place on the grill. And grilling certainly isn’t compulsory. “If your peaches are already super sweet, don’t even bother grilling – just slice into wedges and serve with the rest of the stuff.”
She also has advice for other substitutions, making this recipe intrinsically accessible. “If you’ve snapped up green peppercorns for this, use the rest to make a sauce for roast veg or steak. Pink peppercorns fit the bill if you can’t find green – just halve the quantity and grind in a mortar and pestle. Buffalo mozza is a worthy stand-in for burrata.”
Alice Zaslavsky’s peach salad with burrata and green peppercorns
Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5–10 minutes
Ingredients
6–8 firm ripe freestone peaches
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for finishing
2–3 burrata balls, about 120g each, drained
¼ cup loosely packed mint leaves
2 tbsp finely sliced chives
GREEN PEPPERCORN VINAIGRETTE
1 bruised garlic clove
1 tsp green peppercorns, chopped
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dijon mustard
¼ tsp salt flakes
Method
Heat a barbeque grill plate or heavy-based griddle pan on medium heat. Have a piece of baking paper and foil handy (this’ll help keep the peaches intact, without leaving half the best burnished bits on the grill). Cut peaches in half and remove the stone. Brush the cut peach halves with a little of the olive oil. Lay the baking paper on top of the foil, then lay it foil-side down onto the hot grill, placing the peaches cut-side down on top of the baking paper. Cook for 5–10 minutes until the peaches have burnished evenly, softening slightly, then turn over to just warm through.
Meanwhile, to make the vinaigrette, put all of the ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until emulsified. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Place the peaches cut-side up on a serving platter, leaving gaps for the burrata balls. Remove the garlic clove from the vinaigrette and pour the dressing over the peaches while they are still hot. Blob in the burrata, scatter with the mint leaves and finely sliced chives and dress with salt and pepper and a final flourish of olive oil.
This is an edited extract from Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky, RRP$45 out now through Murdoch Books.