Burrata

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Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It is usually served fresh, at room temperature. The name "burrata" means "buttered" in Italian.

History

As with other mozzarellas, Burrata owes its existence to the water buffalo, which was brought to Italy from its native Asia sometime in the 1400s. Water buffalo milk is richer and higher in protein than that of cows, yielding 1.6 times more cheese. It lacks the yellow pigment carotene found in cow’s milk, so mozzarella di bufala is pure white. Mozzarella is made with the milk of water buffaloes; in Italy this is a legal requirement, and a similar cheese made with cow's milk is called fior di latte or fiordilatte. In other countries cheese is often made with cow's milk and sold under the names of mozzarella and burrata.

Burrata was first made around 1920 on the Bianchini farm^{[citation needed]} in the town of Andria in Murgia, a small area in the Apulia region. In the 1950s, it became more widely available after a few of the local cheese factories—notably Chieppa^{[citation needed]}—began producing it. It is generally believed that factories found it a way to utilize the ritagli ("scraps" or "rags") of mozzarella. Established as an artisanal cheese, Burrata maintained its premium-product status even after it began to be made in a number of factories from Andria, Bari, Gioia del Colle, Modugno, all the way to Martina Franca, an eighty-mile stretch of Puglia. It became more widely available outside its native Apulia in the early years of the twenty-first century.

Production

Burrata starts out much like mozzarella and many other cheeses, with rennet used to curdle the warm milk. But then, unlike other cheeses, fresh mozzarella curds are plunged into hot whey or lightly salted water, kneaded and pulled to develop the familiar stretchy strings (pasta filata), then shaped in whatever form is desired.

When making Burrata, the still-hot cheese is formed into a pouch, which is then filled with scraps of leftover mozzarella and topped off with fresh cream (panna) before closing. The finished Burrata is traditionally wrapped in the leaves of asphodel, tied to form a little brioche-like topknot, and moistened with a little whey. The asphodel leaves should still be green when the cheese is served, to indicate the cheese’s freshness. More recently the cheese is often sold in a plastic bag or container

Serving indications

When the Burrata is sliced open, its ritagli-thickened panna flows out. The cheese has a rich, buttery flavor, and retains its fresh milkiness. It is best when eaten within 24 hours, and is considered past its prime after 48 hours. The flavour and different textures of the inside and outside make it go well with salad, prosciutto crudo, hard crusted bread, fresh tomato with olive oil and cracked black pepper, or pasta.