Burrata is everything you could want from Italian cheese: indulgent, creamy, and perfect to eat with a huge range of different foods.
A young cheese with history
Although its older sibling, mozzarella, has been around for nearly 500 years, this is a pretty young cheese. First made in the 1920s at the Bianchini family farm in Andria, a commune in Southern Italy, it has only recently become a product that you can get the world over (but boy are we glad it has!). In fact, it was only in the 1950s when it became widely available, with local cheese factories around Andria producing it as a way of using up their scraps of mozzarella.
These days, it is also produced in the US, especially in the areas of the northeast that have large populations of Italian Americans (New York or New Jersey, for example). So, yes, you’d probably be fair enough in imagining Tony Soprano wolfing one down between hits. But, in the European Union, it’s a protected geographical indication product, meaning the cheese sold there can only be made in the Region of Apulia.
A special process
Surprisingly, burrata is not actually made from buffalo milk like mozzarella, but instead from cow’s milk and fresh cream. Like all cheese, it starts out as a curd, which is then cooked. What makes its production so particular is that, unlike other cheeses, once the curd is ready it is dropped into hot whey or salted water. After that, the cheesemaker kneads the curd into a pouch, developing the curd’s elasticity. Then, in one swift movement, cream is poured inside the pouch and the top is pinched or tied closed, giving the burrata its distinct pear-like shape.
How to eat burrata? The answer is really ‘as much as possible’ because it’s so delicious, but there are a huge amount of possibilities for pairing. You can eat it on bruschetta, piercing it to let the cream soak through into the toasted bread, or as something to melt into a rich pasta dish. It’s equally great with beef, with the creaminess of the cheese mixing gloriously with the firmer meat.
Burrata country
If you’re interested, you can also make a pilgrimage to Andria to see a famous castle in the area and, brace yourselves, go on a burrata tasting tour!
On foodpanda there are plenty of places you can get burrata in Singapore. You can try, for example, Pizzeria L’operetta, or a delicious burrata with eggplant salad, walnuts & bottarga at Amò. Wherever you go though, we’ll be jealous.