Spring salad with pea shoots, snap peas and burrata cheese + ramp pesto dressing

Remember that spring salad I made and photographed over a month ago?  I blame the pregnant brain (that evidently has no scientific basis) for my inability to sit down and write a blog post lately.  Cooking the food and taking the photos happens effortlessly, but writing in general has been a struggle.  Crafting an email? Takes all afternoon.  Working on my scientific publication?  Forget it.  Writing always came easy to me before this cute little endoparasite took over my body, so hopefully after Smalls is born I will be refreshed and back to normal.  I mean I won't have anything else to worry about, right?

Sob story aside, from what I remember this salad was ah-mazing.  Have you ever had burrata cheese?  Since I first tried it a couple of years ago I have divided my life into two phases: life before burrata cheese and life after burrata cheese.  If you think it doesn't get better than a ball of fresh mozzarella, imagine that ball of fresh mozzarella with cream in the center so when the ball of cheese is cut in half the cream slowly oozes out and blends into the other ingredients on the plate.  Put it on a pizza and your mind will be blown.

This salad is humble enough to throw together for a simple lunch and seems elegant enough to serve at your next dinner party.  Endlessly adaptable, which is good since yours truly waited until it was technically summer to blog about a salad using spring ingredients.  Switch out basil for the ramp greens, and tomatoes or roasted zucchini for the peas.  Just don't forget the buratta.

Ramp greens pesto salad dressing

1/4 cup ramp greens, chopped

1 small clove garlic

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil

Pea shoots, snap peas and burrata salad

1/2 Cup pea shoots, chopped roughly

2 cups mixed salad greens (I used arugula and spring mix)

1/2 cup snap peas, cut in half lengthwise

1 ball of burrata cheese

A few shavings of Parmesan cheese

For the dressing: Roughly chop the clove of garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt.  With the flat side of your knife smash the salt into the garlic and continue to scrap the garlic into the cutting board until you have a paste.  Transfer to a mortar and pestle, add the ramp greens and blend together with the pestle until you have a green paste.  Add the vinegars, mix, and then slowly drizzle in the EVOO while whisking until the dressing is emulsified.  Any leftover dressing will keep in the fridge for a while (I have no clue how long, give it the sniff test?).

Assembling the salad: Place salad greens on a platter, tuck pea shoots around and under the greens.  Drizzle with dressing, place burrata cheese on top, shave Parmesan on top of everything and enjoy.  Serves 1 as a meal, or 2 as a side dish.