Burrata Curd with Peas, Broad Beans and Bottarga - Recipe by Colin Wood

Ingredients

Good fresh peas at the start of Spring are so sweet and crunchy straight from the pod and can be eaten like candy. I love the texture and it reminds me of lunches at Nanna’s house, along with shelled broad beans from her garden. Just be careful how many beans you eat in a sitting; my brother Mick has a funny story about that.

60g fresh peas
60g broad beans
Sea salt flakes
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp mint vinegar or chardonnay vinegar (Forvm brand if possible)
100g-120g quick mozzarella, stracciatella, or a burrata ball broken open and torn a few baby mint leaves
Pea shoots/broad bean leaves/pea flowers
Bottarga

Spring onion oil:

Bunch of spring onions (scallions)
Grapeseed oil

Method

To make the spring onion oil:

Weigh the green tops of the spring onions, then weigh twice that amount of grapeseed oil, so a 2:1 ratio. Warm the oil in a saucepan to 60 C, then pour over the greens in a blender. Carefully blend the oil for 2 minutes, then strain through a coffee filter. Put the strained mixture in the freezer for the liquids to freeze, then strain off the oil again. As you only need 2 tablespoons, the rest keeps best in the freezer.

Peel and pod the peas and broad beans, being careful not to eat too many peas while doing so.

Blanch the larger peas in boiling salted water for 10 seconds and refresh in iced water. For any smaller ones you can keep them raw and do the same with the broad beans — but cook longer until just cooked. If the broad beans are quite large and the skin is thick, pod them again once refreshed.

In a small bowl, toss the peas and broad beans with salt and half the lemon zest, then add a squeeze of lemon juice, the vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the spring onion oil and let marinate for a couple of minutes — make it sharp, as the bottarga is salty and the fat comes from the rich cheese.

Spoon the cheese into a bowl, then the salad over the top with a few of the mint leaves and pea shoots.

Using a microplane, zest more lemon and then sprinkle the bottarga quite liberally over the top just as you are ready to serve.

NOTES:

If you can’t find good fresh peas, a quickly blanched frozen pea will also work — they just have a different texture and flavour.
Bottarga can be found at certain fishmongers and specialty stores and lasts in the fridge. It’s also great with ricotta or left-over burrata curds on toast.

Credits: There's Always Room for Cheese by Colin Wood, published by Hardie Grant Books. RRP $40.00.

Photo Credits: There's Always Room for Cheese by Colin Wood, published by Hardie Grant Books. RRP $40.00.