Keeping It Simple Chef Clay Conley combines ripe plums and creamy burrata into an effortless summer salad.

I'M MOST IMPRESSED not by the dishes that involve complicated, intricate technique, but rather by ones that startle with their simplicity, bringing together quality ingredients in an unexpected way and letting them shine.

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This plum and burrata salad (recipe below) from Clay Conley, chef at Buccan, is a perfect example of the latter. To make it, juicy, peak-season plums are tossed with a tangy shallot vinaigrette and fanned over a bed of creamy and cool burrata with torn fresh herbs. Then comes the element that takes the dish over the top: spiced sliced almonds, which Conley lightly fries then coats in a sweet, spicy, and salty mix of fennel seeds, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper. The crunchy nuts are bright and fiery but warming and sweet at the same time: the perfect finishing touch to this simple yet sensational salad. -PAIGE GRANDJEAN

Plum and Burrata Salad with Spiced Almonds

TOTAL 20 MIN; SERVES 4