Burrata over Heirloom Tomato & Cucumber Salad
Working for an Italian chef, this year I discovered a fabulous new Italian cheese: Burrata. While not good for my waistline or my pocket book, this cheese is really an incredible treat. I enjoyed this for dinner over an heirloom tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Burrata comes in a ball and the outside is a stringy fresh mozzarella and the inside is a combination of mozzarella and cream. When you break open the mozzarella shell (no toughness here), the creamy inside flows out. It's really amazing!
For an excellent description, see this page at Mangia Bene Pasta. I got mine at A. G. Ferrari and it was perfectly fresh. I bought some at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and it was already off. According to my source at A.G. Ferrari, it lasts 5 days in the fridge.
(Warning: Like most mozzarellas, Burrata uses rennet to curdle the warm milk. If you only enjoy rennetless cheeses, this one isn't for you.)
Previously, I've enjoyed Burrata on top of baguette slices, but it was so good with my delicious heirloom tomato salad (the tomato was so sweet and perfect) that I ended up skipping the baguette. I garnished my salad with kalamata olives, but with one bite realized that they overpowered the wonderfully fresh, mild flavor of the cheese and the tomato salad. A nice mild and meaty cerignola olive would be a great improvement.
posted by Catherine at 7:06 PM
4 Comments:
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oh. my. god! that cheese sounds incredible!! so decadent; i can't resist!
The first time I ever had burrata was in Italy, at the home of friends. They served it over tomatoes they'd just picked from their garden. Drizzled with a bit of balsamic, it was the best cheese I ever had. And now it's so great to be able to get it in the US.
This looks great, I'm in San Francisco and recently sourced fresh burrata, I made a similar salad to this!
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