Peach and Tomato Salad with Ricotta

This is the Perfect Way to Enjoy the Last Great Peaches of Summer.

I know I’ve recently posted a couple recipes using peaches or nectarines, but while I’m still able to get some good ones at the market, I have to share this one with you, too. I eat a lot of fruit and regularly incorporate it into my meals.  As I’ve mentioned many times, these are the kinds of dishes that excite me the most. When you’ve got really good peaches and tomatoes, you don’t need to do much in order for them to taste great.

I had a cup of my homemade creamy ricotta left over from another meal and put this salad together quickly. All I did was stir minced fresh basil, lemon zest, salt, and pepper into the ricotta. It really doesn’t need anything else. The lemon and basil flavors lend themselves perfectly to the fruit.

Then I layered sliced peaches, tomatoes, red onion, and avocado on a platter, and drizzled them with pomegranate molasses and good olive oil after seasoning everything with salt and pepper. I spooned dollops of the seasoned ricotta on top of the salad, topped it with plenty of crushed pistachios and a few basil leaves. That’s it in its entirety. But talk about delicious. All the flavors and textures begged for some really good bread. 

I’ve been making my baguettes from a King Arthur recipe for the last couple of months and am really sold on it. I cut the recipe in half and end up with 3 – 16 inch baguettes and a smaller one that usually gets eaten straight out of the oven. 

The recipe is a no knead type, which requires you to give it 20 or so turns every 30 minutes for 3 hours. This may sound tedious, but it’s not. I mix up the dough and set my timer. Then I go on to other things. I’ve even run errands in between those 30 minute turns. At the end of 3 hours, the dough is shaped, rested for 20 minutes, given its final shape, and left to rise for about an hour before being baked. 

Out of all the baguette recipes I’ve made, this is my current favorite. It will take a lot for me to even try a different recipe at this point. You can see the end result in the photo and if this is your kind of bread, I highly recommend this recipe. Here’s the link to King Arthur’s recipe: Unkneaded 6 Fold French Bread .