So today I'm going to be making a peach salad that is like a platter of summertime, all on one good spot.

[upbeat acoustic music] And I'm gonna start with the dressing that goes on top.

And the star of the dressing is fresh basil.

There is no herb.

I love more with peaches.

And you're gonna want a lot of basil.

Two big handfuls.

I'm gonna put them on the bottom.

Now there's not a lot of oil in this dressing.

I'm gonna let the herbs and the other ingredients do the heavy lifting.

But I do need a little bit of oil just to smooth out the flavors and give this dressing some body.

So that was a very fruity, light olive oil.

And then I'm gonna put in a whole lot of honey.

I actually call this dressing a honey lemonade, 'cause I want people to get some expectation of the sweetness.

Now you can't have honey lemonade without the lemon.

And I'm getting that in two different ways.

A whole lot of fresh zest.

This is the zest of a whole lemon and then I have the juice of that lemon.

[light acoustic music] For a little bit of heat, a little bit of balance and a little bit more acidity, I have a green jalapeno hot sauce.

It's not fiery hot.

There's a little gentle heat, but there's almost a citrus quality to it that's gonna balance this out.

And I'm gonna put a little salt and a little pepper and then we're gonna let our little machine do the work here.

[motor pulsing] And this is what I want.

So what I've done is I've let the liquid do its job, but I want some of those beautiful, bright green juicy bits of that basil to still shine through.

So let me transfer this into a jar so you can see what I'm talking about.

Look at this, it is so beautiful.

And the aroma on this, that bright lemon, that basil, I don't know what sunshine smells like, but I bet it's a little bit like this dressing.

And there you have it, so quick, so easy, so beautiful and delicious.

This is our basil lemonade dressing for our peaches.

You know when I'm making a big platter of salad like this and I wonder what might go with what, I let mother nature give me my starting point.

There's an old adage that what grows together goes together.

And that is the premise for a lot of these ingredients.

I'm gonna start arranging these beautiful ingredients on a platter.

This is called a composed or an arranged salad, because you're just gonna put everything on the platter.

Look at these juicy, gorgeous peaches.

I'm gonna spread 'em around and then start putting some other things.

Tomatoes.

If you've never had the delightful combination of ripe, juicy, garden-fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes and peaches, you have missed out.

And this salad will be a revelation to you.

Look at these green ones.

This is a ripe tomato with this great green color, but you can even use an under-ripe green tomato.

And that little bit of tang is so good with the peaches.

Now the next thing I'm gonna add are some sugar snap peas.

I love their crunch.

I love their color.

Now let your peas tell you what they need.

If they need a little bit of blanching and shocking in hot water and then ice water, do that.

But if they are good enough to crunch raw, you can skip that step.

Same thing with this sweet corn.

Sweet corn and peaches are about as much of an under-sung hero as peaches and tomatoes.

If your corn is freshly picked and freshly shucked and so juicy that you want to eat it raw, then that's what you should do.

You should eat it raw.

If it needs a tiny bit of cooking, don't cook it till it is tender.

Cook it just until it loses its rawness, because you know, if you decide that you wanna pick up a couple of the ingredients and put 'em back on top, this is your little palette here.

I want you to play with this until it looks just like what you want.

I've got a little bit of avocado and I'm gonna fan out these slices just a little bit and tuck that around.

And next comes fresh mozzarella.

You're gonna find this, it often comes packed in some whey, and look what you do.

Just rip it, pull it into long strands.

It's creamy, it's rich, but yet light.

So easy, so beautiful.

We're almost at the finish line.

This is shallot, which is kind of a mild onion-y thing.

And then for crunch, these are Marcona almonds.

They're just a really good kind of almond.

Alright, I've got everything on here except a little bit more basil.

And we get that final little burst of freshness.

Plenty of good salt and pepper.

And when I'm doing a salad like this, I use a crunchy salt, a finishing salt, like a flake or a coarse one.

It is gonna give you a little crunch when you take a bite and it doesn't dissolve when it hits the juicy tomatoes and peaches.

It is the perfect kind of salt to put on this.

Now here's our dressing, our great basil lemonade from earlier.

You can do two things with it.

I like to put a little bit on at the time and then serve the rest at the table so people can doctor up their a bit of salad in a way that makes them happy.

Isn't this a fun and amazing way to serve peaches and all of these other things?

But you take this to the table, people are gonna say nice things about you and all you did was decorate with what mother nature gave you.

[soft music fading] [upbeat music]