Peach Bocconcini Salad with Honey, Basil and Proscuitto

Ripe peaches torn open over bocconcini, rocket and prosciutto, dressed with honey, brown sugar and basil. A summer caprese with stone fruit doing the work of tomato. The salt of the prosciutto, the sweet of the peach, basil tying both ends.

The Italian caprese-with-peaches variation is the Pugliese-Sicilian summer salad that lifts the dish out of the standard tomato-mozzarella-basil triangle and into stone-fruit territory. The pairing of soft, milky cheese with sweet, fragrant fruit is the Mediterranean instinct that has driven hundreds of antipasto combinations for centuries; the peach-and-bocconcini version is the southern Italian seasonal application.

The pan-caramelisation on the peaches is the small chef move that elevates the dish past a raw fruit salad. Peaches cut in half, the cut sides lathered in brown sugar and olive oil, then seared briefly on a hot electric griddle until the sugar caramelises and the fruit takes on grill marks. The slight char and the deepened sweetness pair beautifully with the salty prosciutto in a way raw peach cannot quite manage.

Prosciutto di Parma (the eighteen-month-aged Italian air-cured ham from the Emilia-Romagna region) is the right cured meat. The slight saltiness and the silky, almost-fatty texture of the prosciutto needs the sweet-acid balance of the peach to read at its best; a leaner ham would dominate the dish. Toasted pine nuts for textural crunch, basil torn over the top for the green herb hit, honey drizzled in a final flourish. Eat outdoors on a warm afternoon with a glass of cold Provencal rose.