Fava, Snap Peas & Burrata Salad

I'm still cooking spring inspired food, yup. I wanted a green, green plate for lunch one day and this salad hit the spot. I might be overdoing it a little on the amount of produce I'm eating everyday haha! My crisper drawers in the fridge have constantly been full to the brim with produce taking over fridge shelves too the last few weeks. But it's worth it, right?

I've been waiting for peaches to arrive in the market and as soon as I saw donut peaches, I grabbed them! I love donut peaches the most among all the peach varieties. They remain so crunchy even after they're ripe. I ate most of the peaches plain because they are so good, but used a few smaller ones in this salad. Burrata is a really good cheese to pair with spring fruit (or even with tomatoes). It's basically a mozzarella parcel filled with soft cream and cheese curds. I can see this cheese working really well with cherries and balsamic vinegar with some nice crusty bread too. Actually, that sounds really good. Maybe I can do that for a picnic lunch one day on one of my hikes!

This is a nice, simple simple salad that gets most of it's flavorings from herbs and good salt. So use the best you can find for both of those. A flavored sea salt would work even better (I used smoked flaked sea salt from Jacobson's). Try to get some good crusty bread for the grilled bread as well. It's amazing with some burrata spread on top, yum!

Recipe adapted from Cook Beautiful, Athena Calderone
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 pieces whole grain bread from a country style loaf
4 oz baby arugula leaves
2 lb fava beans in pods, shelled and blanched for 2 minutes and outer skin removed
8 oz sugar snap peas, blanched for 1 minute and trimmed
4 very small peaches, sliced thin
1/2 bunch mint, leaves picked & large leaves roughly torn
1/2 bunch basil, leaves picked & large leaves roughly torn
8 oz burrata
1 lemon, zest and juice
3 tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tbsp for grilling bread
flaked sea salt
black pepper

Instructions:
Preheat a cast iron grill pan for 5 minutes and grill bread brushed with 1 tbsp olive oil for 2 minutes each side. Set aside.
Divide arugula, fava, snap peas, peaches, mint, basil & burrata amount four plates (or large salad bowls). Zest the lemon over the plates equally and juice it similarly. Drizzle 3 tbsp olive oil equally over the plates and add lots of sea salt flakes (you needs a heavy hand for seasoning here since everything is a blank canvas). Grind fresh black pepper over it and serve with grilled bread.