BURRATA WITH SPECK, ENGLISH PEAS, AND PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO

Burrata with Speck, English Peas, and Parmigiano-Reggiano image

Peas, Parmigiano, and prosciutto are a combination that you see often in Italy, and one that, to me, says spring. The way we plate this dish it looks like a bird's nest, with half of a ball of burrata nestled into folds of speck, topped with a pile of peas, and then covered with a light dusting of Parmigiano that looks like fresh fallen snow. Although I prefer the smoky flavor of the speck, prosciutto is a fine substitute.

Yield serves 4

Number Of Ingredients 8

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Ingredients

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup shelled fresh English peas (about 20 pods, or 2 1/2 pounds unshelled peas)
20 sugar snap peas
20 medium mint leaves, stacked and very thinly sliced lengthwise
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus a wedge for grating an additional 1/4 cup
2 tablespoons finishing-quality extra-virgin olive oil
16 thin slices of speck (about 2 ounces) or prosciutto (about 4 ounces)
8 ounces burrata

Steps:

Fill a large saucepan with water, salt the water to taste like the ocean, adding approximately 1 tablespoon of salt to each quart of water, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Fill a bowl with ice water and line a plate or small bowl with paper towels. Place a wire strainer in the sink. Add the Engllish peas to the boiling water and cook them for about 1 1/2 minutes, until they turn bright green but are still crunchy. Quickly drain the peas in the wire strainer and plunge them, still in the strainer, in the ice water to cool completely, about 1 minute. Transfer them to the paper towels to drain.
Pull the strings off the sugar snap peas, discard, and slice the sugar snap peas 1/8 inch thin on such an extreme bias that you are almost slicing them lengthwise. Put the peas, sugar snap peas, and mint in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with the olive oil, and toss to combine the ingredients and coat the vegetables with the seasonings.
Drape four slices of speck in a rosette-like pattern on each of four salad plates, dropping the slices onto the plate so they stand up slightly rather than placing the slices flat against the plate. Cut the burrata into four equal segments and nestle one segment in the center of each "rosette." Pile the dressed peas on top of the burrata, allowing a bit to fall onto the speck below, and use a microplane or another fine grater to grate a light layer of Parmigiano-Reggiano over each plate, and serve.
Pinot Bianco (Alto Adige)