Burrata Cheese

Have you tried Burrata Cheese yet? It's all the rage. I had heard about it and then learned that Mario Batali serves it in his restaurants, so you know it's gotta be good, and it's still somewhat of a novelty. It is not yet sold in many places although we have a couple of specialty stores locally that carry it.

A friend of mine went on a Burrata hunt and found a manufacturer, these folks are from Italy, that are supposed to make the best cheese and sell it to the specialty stores, where you can happily walk in and buy it for double what it cost at the manufacturer. But us girls will do just about anything for good cheese, so we took a field trip to this place. Just let me say it is not in the best part of town. It's the kind of area you want to get in....then get out! Fast! But we did get the cheese. We bought several container's of the burrata and then decided while we were there we may as well get some mozzarella too. I would have loved to have gotten some ricotta as well but I figured I was already pushing my luck. Needless to say we were eating cheese for days.

The Burrata comes in a big one pound ball. When you cut into it you notice there is a little skin on the outside that keeps it all together. The inside is very soft and creamy. It is similar to mozzarella but much creamier and richer, although it is light, as in airy. The first night I had it I served it as suggested, simply sliced with some good olive oil, salt and pepper. We also tried it with some fantastic fig balsamic I happened to have in the kitchen. It was good, but I found I could not eat that much because it is rich. I would have thought that since it was so light I could eat more of it but nooooooo.

The next night I decided to make a kind of a capresse pasta. See picture above. I whipped up some pasta dough in the morning and let it rest all day so that by the time I was ready for dinner I would not be too tired to make it. Good thinking on my part! I took some grape tomatoes and covered them with olive oil, dried herbs and garlic and roasted them in the oven. Then using the same pan, I added the pasta to it with the burrata, some kalamata olives, fresh basil and tossed it all together. The heat from the tomatoes and pasta melted some of the burrata so it was gooey. I topped it with some good olive oil and Parmesan. Ahhhh...yum!

You could turn this into a quick week night meal by using dried pasta. I do love a good home made pasta but I don't make it on a regular basis. It's more of a special item in our house.

A few days later I was still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the mozzarella. I mean one can only eat so many capesse salads. I decided to make a lasagna. Plus I still had some pasta dough in the frig. I had no recipe I just got in the kitchen and put one together.

First I made the lasagna noodles with the pasta dough using my Kitchen Aid attachment. I made them slightly thinner than the store bought ones because I like a lighter lasagna. I think sometimes lasagna is just too darn thick and heavy. I remember while in Florence Italy my husband ordered lasagna that was to die for....like nothing we had ever had and have not had since. It was so unbelievably light I could not believe it was lasagna. All those layers, yet still airy, and it did not make you feel like you had a lead weight in your stomach afterward. Anyway I digress. I decided I would do three layers, each twice. A spinach layer, a tomato sauce layer, and the mozzarella cheese layer.

For the spinach I thawed a frozen bag of spinach and got all the water out of it. I caramelized some onions in olive oil, added the spinach, garlic and just a pinch of nutmeg and it was ready. Allow to come to room temp.

For the tomato layer I opened a can of whole San Marzano's and crushed them with my hand, sauteed them with some garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and just a pinch of red pepper flakes.

For the cheese I simply sliced it as thin as I could. I added nothing else to that.

Now I had all the ingredients ready and was ready to assemble. I took one layer of pasta, then half the spinach, more pasta, then half the tomato sauce, pasta, half the cheese. Repeat all three layers. I grated some Parmesan over the top and put it on a baking sheet into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. If you like that brown crusty thing on top you con turn the oven to broil for the last 5 minutes.

It was quite tasty and there were leftovers, which I love! I cut them into serving size pieces and put them in the freezer for those nights when I need something quick. I served small portions of the lasagna with a salad and glass of red wine. All I can say is that my husband is one lucky son of a.......I hope he realizes how lucky he is to be married to such a fine cook. Ha!