RECIPE: Spaghetti Caprese With Burrata

[1] One-pot Spaghetti Caprese With Burrata (photo © The Baker Chick).

[2] Moist and creamy, burrata is a great cheese for fresh-cheese lovers (© Murray’s Cheese).

Finally, burrata cheese is being made by enough American producers that many cheese lovers nationwide can buy it locally.

Beyond enjoying it in a Caprese salad or with fruit, The Baker Chick has created this one-pot Spaghetti Caprese Recipe With Burrata.

This one-pot recipe can be on the table in just 30 minutes.

In addition to clicking over to the spaghetti recipe, head to The Baker Chick’s home page and check out all of her wonderful recipes and food photography.
 
 
WHAT IS BURRATA?

Burrata is a “filled” mozzarella, a specialty of the Apulia region of Italy, the “heel of the boot.” The word means “buttery” in Italian.

A hollow ball of buffalo mozzarella (mozzarella di bufala) is filled with panna, cream that contains scraps of mozzarella left over from mozzarella-making.

(The cream seems like very fine-grained ricotta to us.)

Cut into the ball and the cream oozes out. While both buttery and creamy, it is not overly rich; just overly delicious.

For years, the only burrata in the U.S. was imported from Italy to New York and other East Coast cities. Because of its short lifespan, it was too fragile to travel much further.

Burrata imported from Italy is traditionally wrapped in a green leaf, which are the fronds of an Italian plant called asphodel (it’s in the lily family, Liliaceae, which also contains asparagus and the different onion genuses—chives, garlic, leeks and onions, among other foods).

The leaves are an indicator of freshness: As long as the leaves are still fresh and green, the cheese within is still fresh. Dried-out leaves mean a cheese is past its prime.

When it travels from the dairy, the cheese also wrapped in a clear plastic bag to catch the natural liquid that drains from it.

Here’s more about burrata cheese and the history of burrata.

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