A victim of its popularity, the real recipe for burrata is becoming difficult to distinguish among its many industrial productions.
Burrata season is here! This creamy cheese, best enjoyed fresh, with a simple drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel, or even pesto alla genovese or a bed of rocket for connoisseurs, is not a real mozzarella, but its “cousin”. This little porcelain-coloured ball originated in the Puglia region in southern Italy, invented around the 1920s by a farmer, a certain Lorenzo Bianchino, who did not want to waste his leftover cow’s milk mozzarella and had the wonderful idea of shredding it and stuffing it with stracciatella cream – the equivalent of our crème fraîche – then wrapping it all in a braided green rush leaf. This explains the creamy, runny centre of burrata…
It is easy today to get this Italian cheese that has become the darling of the French: burrata is displayed in all Italian delicatessens and cheese shops, and has even invaded the shelves of our supermarkets. But be careful! Did you know that the The name of burrata is not protected, and therefore this cheese can be made in any region of France or Italy? Manufacturers have decided to mechanize as many stages of its production as possible in the interests of profitability, while artisans continue to do all the stages by hand.
It’s simple: there is only one burrata in the world that has benefited from a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) since 2016 and the PAT (Traditional Italian Agri-Food Product) label, it is the burrata di Andria, directly produced in Puglia in the south-east of the Italian boot, in its original form. How to recognize it? Everything lies on the labels or the packaging in trays or pots of this burrata, which have a blue and white logo with the design of a tied purse around which is written “Burrata di Andria PGI”, the European symbol.
The “Burrata di Andria” comes in the form of a hand-shaped bag of pasta filata into which “stracciatella” has been inserted, an amalgam of cream and filaments of the same pasta filata, closed with a raffia food tie. Don’t panic if the burrata is not closed with a rush, for health reasons, the braided rush leaf has been replaced by plastic. Packaged in a tray or jar, this ultra-fresh product must be consumed very quickly and in the spring, when the cows feed on new, rich grass in the pastures, providing milk rich in fat. When slicing the dough, the tender heart of the cream should immediately flow. If you can’t find this burrata, the compromise will be to get a “Burrata di Bufala”, made from buffalo milk, creamier than that made from cow’s milk.