Heirloom Caprese Salad with Burrata Recipe

Update your caprese salad with rich, buttery burrata instead of mozzarella. Look who's classy now.
Update your caprese salad with rich, buttery burrata instead of mozzarella. Look who's classy now.

Burrata is a very special cheese. Actually it's two cheeses literally rolled into one. It's a ball of the mozarella we all know and love filled with a rich, buttery mix of mozzarella and heavy cream. Is that a dreamy thought, or what?

Now that tomatoes are in full-on season, I've been making caprese salads left and right. I buy burrata at my local Italian market, but you can find it at many specialty gourmet shops and at grocery stores with extensive cheese sections. As for substitutes Smoked mozzarella makes an excellent caprese, and you can get by with fresh whole-milk ricotta (which is easy to make at home).

Related: Hannukah-style Caprese Salad Recipe »

This caprese is special, definitely for a dinner party or pot-luck. The preparation is so incredibly easy it's almost unfair how colorful and attractive this burrata caprese ends up, not to mention delicious in a way only uber-seasonal ingredients can be. Best of all, you're only in the kitchen with zero burners going for about 15 minutes before getting back to the gathering. More gin rickeys for you.

Spread the creamy stuff on a slice of crusty bread, top with a few pieces of juicy summer tomato doused with olive oil and adorned with basil ribbons and you're a happy party person. A tip: don't add salt until you're ready to serve - or you'll release a lot of extra liquid that will pool unpleasantly on the serving plate. Of course, that IS what the bread is for...

Servings: 2 to 4

Ingredients

1 large ball (about 8 ounces) fresh burrata
2 to 3 medium heirloom tomatoes, of different colors
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (the greenest you can find)
6 to 8 leaves fresh basil, chiffonaded
coarse sea salt
crusty Italian bread, for serving

Directions:

  1. Drain the burrata of any liquid, place on a plate and set aside. Do not refrigerate.

  2. Slice each tomato into 6-8 chunks and toss in a medium bowl with the olive oil and basil until well-coated.

  3. Spoon tomatoes around the burrata and sprinkle with sea salt.

  4. Add an extra drizzle of olive oil if desired, then slice open burrata with a sharp knife and serve immediately with crusty bread (make sure to serve with a slightly less sharp knife for spreading).

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