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February 27, 2008
Burrata -- it's the cheese
By Natalie Haughton
Daily News Food Editor
Burrata -- the current darling of cheese lovers -- is a silky rich ball of fresh mozzarella stretched over a soft filling of cream and mozzarella strands.
Consumers and chefs are crazy about it. It's now appearing on menus at many of Southern California's toniest restaurants, served in fashionable appetizers and salads.
Burrata originated in Italy in the Puglian city of Andria some 80 years ago. Today, you'll find lots of burrata -- the name comes from the Italian "burro" or "butter" -- handmade by two California companies, as well as some imported from Italy.
"I love the creamy texture and milk-fresh flavor of both the domestic and imported burratas," says Nancy Silverton, founder of Los Angeles' La Brea Bakery. She has been serving it for 12 years, first at Campanile and La Brea Bakery and now at Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza, which she co-owns. "Even people who are not cheese fans love it, as it's not strong and not smelly. I think the flavor of the Italian burrata is more complex and much richer. When you cut it, all the cream oozes out -- not the case with domestic burrata.
"Burrata is a very perishable cheese that has really taken off -- so much so that it's helped put a Los Angeles food product on the map. People first started eating and discovering it at Los Angeles restaurants -- particularly in the last five years."
Vito Girardi, a native of Gioia del Colle, Italy, and president-owner of Gioia Cheese Co. in South El Monte, has been making burrata cheese by hand since 1994 but only sold 400 pounds that first year. Business is booming now, and "we are making 2,000 pounds a day," mostly for upscale restaurants and a small number of retail outlets.
Girardi fills his fresh cow's-milk mozzarella with cream and shredded fresh mozzarella.
At San Diego-based Cantare Foods, "we wrap (stretch) our mozzarella around mascarpone mixed with cream and some mozzarella shreds," says company CEO Olivier Fischer-Morelle.
Silverton features domestic burrata by Gioia on menus at her two latest restaurants along with burrata imported from Basilicata near Puglia at Osteria Mozza. The Italian import comes tied at the top with a knot and green string (traditionally it came with a leek-like piece tied around it to indicate how long the cheese remained fresh)-- and she serves it with sweated leeks and olive oil-soaked bread on the side.
Burrata should be served unheated, she says. "Personally, I think it loses all of its character when heated; it just melts and you don't have that creaminess."
At Pizzeria Mozza, she buys 1-pound pieces and serves a scoop of it in a mozza caprese -- with pesto on top of the burrata, then snipped fresh basil and a pile of roasted tomatoes. Silverton also uses burrata on squash blossom pizzas, adding small scoops after the pizza is cooked in the wood-burning oven.
In the mozzarella bar at Osteria Mozza, she uses half of a 4-ounce burrata ball as an appetizer on toasted white sourdough batard bread with marinated grilled escarole and applewood smoked bacon, and also on top of an open-face braised leek/whole grain mustard vinaigrette sandwich.
Spago Beverly Hills has been serving domestic burrata for five years, says Thomas Boyce, chef de cuisine. "We like to use it within two days of delivery, as it doesn't age well. When it's fresh, it is sweet."
Somtimes a scoop of burrata is served over a fanned-out roasted and caramelized, cool pear half then dressed with a little olive oil, fleur de sel, black pepper and a prosciutto piece.
"Burrata is also good with figs in season, sliced, with fleur de sel, fig syrup and saba (a liquid made out of grape must). It's amazing, too, with fresh or roasted peaches with basil oil and fleur del sel," Boyce adds. He also serves a spoonful on bruschetta atop marinated shelling beans and pesto. And sometimes, he adds dollops to a margherita pizza at the end of cooking and just warms it through.
"People like it (burrata) because it has the flavor of a really nice fresh mozzarella but also that really creamy texture and just a hint of acidity. I love it. I can't see what's not to like," adds Boyce.
Girardi makes mostly 1-pound pieces and, on request, some smaller balls for restaurants (the process takes about about five hours from start to finish) and packs them in containers without any water or liquid. The product, with a short shelf life, must be stored at 36 to 40 degrees F and used within five days. When it's past its prime, "it starts going sour and is bitter-tasting," notes Girardi.
Cantare Foods, which has been making burrata for six years, with sales of the handmade product doubling every year, sells mostly retail to consumers through supermarkets with two 4-ounce balls packed in water, says CEO Fischer-Morelle. "It has a shelf life of about 21 days from the date of manufacture and should be used by the sell-by date."
In business almost three decades, Wisconsin-based BelGioioso Cheese Inc., has been making burrata -- in four-and eight-ounce balls -- for a year. The company also packs its burratain a container with water, to keep it moist -- and figures it lasts 37 days, notes Errico Auricchio, president/owner, a native of Naples. However, once opened, it should be used within a day or two.
Paula Lambert, founder and cheesemaker of the Dallas-based Mozzarella Co., has been making handmade burrata in the style of burrino for the last two decades -- but sales have doubled in the last few years.
"When I originally went to Italy to learn to make fresh mozzarella 25 years ago, I learned to make this (style of) burrata," she says. "It is a fresh Italian-style cow'smilk cheese made by completely encasing a soft, creamy lump of sweet cream butter (made from churning fresh cream) with soft, fresh mozzarella." The eight-ounceballs are wrapped in pachment paper, vacuum-sealedand can be kept refrigerated unopened for three weeks (a week once opened).
Best served at room temperature, the flavor is fresh, milky and buttery. While other burrata is too gooeyto melt, this one is delicious when sliced and heated on a bread slice.
WAYS TO SAVOR THE FLAVOR OF BURRATA
- Serve a ball centered on a plate, topped with a couple of basil leaves and black olives, surrounded with thin slices of prosciutto and roasted red pepper strips.
- Serve a ball or piece atop beefsteak tomato slices, sprinkled with chopped fresh basil and drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar.
- Cut and serve on endive leaves for an appetizer.
- Serve with roasted pear slices or grilled peach slices and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and add a sprinkle of fleur de sel.
- Try a bacon or pancetta, burrata and tomato sandwich on foccacia or toasted country bread slices.
- Top a crostini with arugula, a scoop of burrata and a slice of piquillo pepper.
- Toss pieces of burrata into hot cooked pasta with lemon, almonds and fresh basil; do not heat.
- Top room-temperature roasted or grilled vegetables with a scoop or piece of sliced burrata, then drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Add burrata cheese wedges to top of a shaved vegetable salad of thinly sliced endive, celery stalks and fennel bulb tossed with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Add a few dollops to your favorite pizza as it comes hot from the oven.
WINTER CAPRESE
To avoid bitterness, prepare the pesto in a mortar and pestle (reserve extra pesto for another meal). Serve this with your favorite crusty bread to sop up the wonderful, juicy flavors left behind on your plate.
1 pound baby Roma OR cherry tomatoes on the vine
1 tablespoon good-quality olive oil, plus extra for garnish
Salt
Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
1 (1-pound) burrata cheese
4 tablespoons Pesto Sauce (recipe follows)
4 large basil leaves
Place tomatoes with vines intact on a wire rack set on a baking sheet. Brush with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Roast in a preheated 200 degree oven 4 to 4 1/2 hours, until the skins begin to shrivel like a raisin but the tomatoes remain plump. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
Divide the cheese evenly, cut into quarters, placing it cut side up on 4 small plates. Season cheese lightly with sea salt. Spoon 1 tablespoon Pesto Sauce over each portion. Using scissors, snip a basil leaf over each portion. Top with tomatoes, divided evenly among each plate, leaving the vine intact (use scissors to cut the vine for each serving). Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil (about 1/2 teaspoon per serving) and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
PESTO SAUCE: Spread 3 tablespoons pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast in a preheated 325-degree oven 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool. Using a mortar and pestle, pulverize the pine nuts, 2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon), 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves and 1 teaspoon kosher salt into a smooth paste. Slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup good-quality olive oil and add 1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, mixing well to incorporate. Just before serving, season with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or to taste) and additional salt to taste. Makes 3/4 cup.
From Nancy Silverton, Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza.
Posted by Steven Rosenberg at February 27, 2008 5:15 PM
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