Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese

Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto wraps crispy prosciutto around juicy peach slices stuffed with creamy goat cheese and tosses them with fresh greens and a yummy balsamic vinaigrette.

If you are tired of limp green salads with the usual diced vegetables, look no further, I've got the answer. This peach recipe is for you. It easily becomes a main dish salad or an upscale starter/appetizer. It's bright and juicy flavor pairs so well with crispy, salty prosciutto and a creamy dollop of tangy goat cheese in the center.

Cover your ears, Mario Batali, we're doing unspeakable things to  prosciutto.  I filled sweet, juicy peaches with of a tad of jalapeno goat cheese and wrapped them in salty prosciutto.  Then, I broke the rules and threw them on the grill.  Not for long, just long enough to warm the peaches, melt the goat cheese, crisp up the prosciutto and make peaches the star of  this salad.

Why You'll Love This Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto

It's unexpected. When was the last time you had sweet ripe peaches in a savory dish? I fell in love with the surprise of fresh fruit in green salads when I was on vacation in London. Fruit was in every salad I ordered.

Versatile. The grilled peaches are just the beginning. Make this salad into a main dish by serving it on top of crispy grains or wild rice to make a hearty salad bowl. Dice a loaf of crusty Italian bread, toss it in olive oil and bake into croutons to turn this into a Peach Panzanella Salad.

It makes a great starter or appetizer. Toast thin slices of baguette with a little garlic oil and serve it with the grilled peaches wrapped in prosciutto, add the water cress or fresh basil leaves then drizzle with vinaigrette or balsamic.

Easy to make. It only takes a few minutes to slice the peaches and wrap them in prosciutto. Grill them indoors on a grill pan to make them extra quick and easy. In fact, you don't have to grill them at all... I will never tell.

How to Make Grilled Peaches Wrapped in Prosciutto

This salad is really easy, actually.  It only take a few minutes to prep the peaches.

1. Choose the most perfectly ripe peaches you can find.  Rinse and pat dry.
2. Cut the peaches in half and remove the "pit" of each peach.
3. Take each half into cut into half, again. If it is a very large peach, cut each half into 3 slices. The slices should be at least ½ inch
4. Use the tip of your knife to make sure there is a small well in the center of the peach slices to hold a dollop of goat cheese filling.  
5. Then (and this is the only tricky part), wrap the peach with prosciutto and secure with a skewer or toothpick making sure the prosciutto completely covers the goat cheese so that it will not drip out when melted.  
6. Grill the peaches over medium high heat until the prosciutto is as crispy as you would like on as many sides as possible.  I like to use a grill pan indoors but, an outdoor grill is great, too.
7. Toss some greens with shaved fennel and black olives in a light vinaigrette, sprinkle with some crumbled goat cheese, drizzle with balsamic reduction.
8. Add the grilled peaches and serve.

What?!  You don't like goat cheese?  You don't want to live that dangerously?  No problem.  Just substitute some feta cheese or mascarpone cheese and you are good to go.

Tip: I mix cream cheese into the goat cheese when serving people who are not a big fan of goat cheese. It makes it mild.

I've had peaches on the brain lately.  If anything can send me "traveling through another dimension, a dimension beyond sight and sound, a journey into imagination..." and childhood, it's peaches.  About a week ago, I was featured in a Blogger Spotlight on Taste and Tell.  Deborah (the creative genius behind the Taste and Tell blog) asked so many great questions about my favorite recipes, favorite blog posts, favorite childhood food memories that she got me feeling pretty nostalgic and craving peaches.

After reminiscing about peaches for a while, I realized I hadn't done anything wild or crazy with them all summer.  Of coarse, I've made lots of my family's favorite peaches foster and lots of peach cobblers this summer.  But, I needed to do something rebellious, a little dangerous, to keep with my "breakin' the rules" attitude this summer .  This is what I came up with;  an "all grown up" salad with peaches wrapped in prosciutto, stuffed with goat cheese and grilled until crispy on as many sides as possible.  I know, someone said you aren't supposed to cook prosciutto... that's what makes it so dangerous.

Tools I Used for This Recipe

Grill pan from Amazon

Here are some other peach recipes that are walkin' on the wild side:

Chipotle Seared Scallops with a Mango Peach Salsa by I Wash You Dry

Balsamic Skirt Steak Salad with Stone Fruit by Foodie Crush

Grilled Peach Salad with Peach Cumin Dressing by A Farmgirl's Dabbles

Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Recipe

Sandy Hoopes

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Servings 4 to 6

Ingredients

  

• 4 ounces goat cheese or feta
• ½ serrano chile seeded and minced
• 1 teaspoon milk
• ½ bulb fennel
• 1 bunch 2 cups watercress or baby arugula
• ¼ cup nicoise or kalamata olives pitted
• 4 ripe peaches
• 12 thin slices of prosciutto or bacon
• 16 wooden skewers soaked in water
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons exra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons balsamic reduction optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat grill to medium high heat.
• In a small bowl, mix the goat cheese or feta with the minced serrano chile. Add milk to make the cheese a little creamier so it will stay together but, not be too soft.
• Shave the fennel on a mandolin or slice very thinly with a knife. Place in ice water until read to serve.
• Slice pitted olives and set aside.
• Cut peaches in half and remove pit. Cut into quarters. With the point of your knife, scoop a small circle out of the center of the peach quarters.
• Place a dollop of cheese mixture (about the size of a marble) into the center of the peach. Wrap the peach with procsiutto or bacon making sure to cover the cheese well. If the bacon is too thick, place between two pieces of parchment paper and pound with a mallet to thin. Secure around the peach with skewers.
• Grill the peaches until the prosciutto or bacon is crispy on all sides.
• Drain fennel and toss with the watercress and olives.
• Whisk the balsamic vinegar into the olive oil to emulsify. Add salt and pepper.
• Dress the fennel and watercress mixture and place on salad plates.
• Add grilled peaches.
• Drizzle with balsamic reduction, if desired.

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—Sandy