Tomato and Stone-Fruit Panzanella With Burrata
A GREAT PANZANELLA—Tuscany’s beloved bread salad—captures the essence of summer and satisfies our primal craving for bread plus anything delicious. Its basic DNA: olive oil-crisped croutons tossed with sun-ripened tomatoes and drunk on their juices, plus onion slivers and sweet basil. Classic. “The sign that you like a dish is when you take a piece of bread and mop up all the juices,” said chef Fabian von Hauske. “That’s what a panzanella is all about.”
For Mr. von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone’s final Slow Food Fast contribution, the co-chefs of New York’s Contra and Wildair add another seasonal boon, peaches, to the salad bowl. The stone fruit’s sweet-tart flesh and juices play off the tomatoes’ umami side. Another addition, burrata—the soft cheese with a center of even softer cream—adds voluptuousness.
While much of what Mr. von Hauske and Mr. Stone serve at their restaurants is urbane and elegant, this rustic recipe points to their obsession with hyper-seasonal produce. “Our menus are constantly changing because we regularly serve ingredients that are [only] around for a week or two,” said Mr. Stone. “The greenmarket informs everything we do.”
Tomatoes and peaches—perfect, dense, luscious—are at their peak right now. How better to do them justice than with a meal designed to sop up every last delicious drop?