End-of-summer fling: Nectarine salad with basil and fresh mozzarella

o, remember what I said last week about autumn being here? Well, I lied. Or, maybe more to the point, autumn lied to me. It's summer again, at least for the moment, and gone are the soup cravings, the curry cravings, the anything-warm cravings... it's been WARM. And since there are still vestiges of warm-weather food lying about, I couldn't help but whip up a lovely salad this weekend to go along with the sunshine!


Nectarine salad with basil and fresh mozzarella
(So the title pretty much lays out exactly what's in the salad!)
2 nectarines, sliced thinly
1 cup of basil, cut chiffonade
1/2 cup of fresh mozzarella diced (I had those little bocconcini, and halved them)
2 tsp basil oil (straight olive oil will do, but I couldn't resist)
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl and serve room temperature.

Basil oil
So in true "me" fashion, I didn't look up an infused oil recipe, just stuck some leaves in a pot with some olive oil and warmed them through for a couple of hours. Worked well. But if you want to do it the way every recipe site recommends, you'd blanch the leaves first... I think that's why my color isn't as *green* as other basil oils I've seen... So I'll do that next time. Sigh.

Regardless, the salad was amazing. Really a lovely last taste to leave summer with...