Burrata is a fresh cheese from the Italian region of Puglia that is like a creamy version of mozzarella. I had never seen it imported before, so when I did see it in Amsterdam I jumped at the chance to buy it. Then I remembered ChgoJohn posted some recipes with burrata, and so that is where I went for inspiration. I made a few changes to his recipe for pasta with lemon, spinach, and burrata. As burrata is from Puglia, I thought it would be appropriate to make this with the typical pasta shape of Puglia: orecchiette. Since I was out of dried orecchiette, I made some from scratch. Apart from some other small changes, I assembled the dish in a slightly different way.
The combination of the creamy burrata cheese with the lemon, spinach, and pasta worked very well and this is definitely something I’ll make again (if I can get burrata again). This dish is not only original and delicious, but also quick to prepare. Thanks, John, for the inspiration. Since we were eating this as a piatto unico (i.e. this was all we had for dinner), I used a substantial amount of spinach. If you are not very fond of the astringency of spinach, you may want to cut down on the amount of spinach. Here’s what I did.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
225 grams (1/2 lb) burrata cheese
150 grams (1/3 lb) orecchiette pasta (or homemade from 150 grams (1 cup) of semolina flour and water)
450 grams (1 lb) baby spinach
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
freshly grated nutmeg
salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
2 Tbsp slivered almonds
Preparation
Toast the almonds for about 8 minutes at 180ºC/350ºF, or until golden.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt and orecchiette. Cook al dente according to package instructions (or about 8 minutes for fresh homemade orecchiette).
Meanwhile, wash the spinach if needed…
…and dry it in a salad spinner.
Cut the burrata cheese into cubes and allow to come to room temperature.
Heat the oil in a large casserole over medium heat, and add the garlic. Sauté for a minute or so, but do not allow the garlic to turn brown.
Add the lemon zest and juice. Stir to mix and lower the heat to just enough to keep the sauce warm.
Once the orecchiette are cooked, use a skimmer to transfer them…
…to the sauce.
Continue until you have transferred all of the orecchiette.
Now add about a third of the spinach and turn up the heat to medium-low.
Toss the spinach with the pasta, adding a few ladles of the cooking water. Add the remaining spinach in two batches and keep tossing until all of the spinach has just wilted. Then turnoff the heat.
Season with a dash of freshly grated nutmeg…
…add a handful of freshly grated parmigiano…
…and most of the slivered almonds. Toss to mix.
Put the pasta and spinach mixture on warm plates…
…and finish with the burrata, some more parmigiano, and the remaining almonds. Serve at once.
Flashback
Two years ago I developed a recipe for beetroot gnocchi. If you’ve never made gnocchi before, I’d advise to start with an easier type like potato gnocchi.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
interessante l’aggiunta del limone. Da provare
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This looks wonderful. FYI, BelGioioso makes burrata in the US. You can find it online. If you are a bit adventurous, burrata doesn’t look at all hard to make from scratch.
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I’m not in the US. I make ricotta from scratch, but haven’t tried my hand at mozzarella yet. When I do, and successfully, burrata will be next for sure.
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Stefan, I really recommend you have a go at mozzarella. I made it recently, and it really is much easier than you think. Stremsel is easy to find – I got mine online at the brouwmarkt.nl. I am not going to go back to shop bought mozzarella. I did get much better results with rauwe melk, which you will probably need for the curds in a burrata.
Success!
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Reblogged this on Recipes For You 2013 and commented:
Wonderful cheese and pasta
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Beautiful! It looks like a lot of burrata on top! Is it just an illusion or did you use that much? I just ordered some burrata a while back because I was so intrigued and it’s not available locally. Yours was most likely much better than what I got!!! Lovely pasta!
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Chef Mimi…. http://blog.needsupply.com/2014/04/13/how-to-make-burrata/ 🙂
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I used about 4 oz per person, which was just right. I don’t think you can have too much burrata 😉 Next time I will break it up more rather than serving it in a big heap though.
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Anch’io qualche giorno fa ho fatto le orecchiette a mano. Mi sono sentita molto nonna pugliese! Buona idea della burrata e il limone – le orecchiette le amo con le cime di rapa.
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Ciao, Claudia. Le cime di rapa sono più dificile da trovare qui che la burrata. Però le ho fatte quasi un anno fa: https://stefangourmet.com/2013/05/18/orecchiette-con-le-cime-di-rapa/
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Just gorgeous, especially with the sharp parmesan and creamy burrata. Burrata is very in vogue these days in the States. I love that you did not skip on the burrata on top. Yum, yum, YUM.
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This is a public forum so I cannot tell what I could do just to taste your wondeful dish. That burrata looks to die for! Almost a year I don’t eat some… craving it like crazy!
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Your dish looks so good, Stefan! I’m really glad that you’ve found burrata and hope that you can get purchase it on a regular basis. Thank you so much for the shout-out. Very kind of you to mention my recipe as inspiration. I should thank you, too, for reminding me of this dish. It’s been a while and a lemony pasta tastes so good this time of year — even better with burrata. 🙂
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I actually liked the look of your dish better, with the burrata not all in one heap like I did. I’ll do it like that next time.
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This looks so good! I love a good pasta 🙂
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Lovely! Shall make some time over Easter . . .. . may yours be relaxed and pleasant! Actually if one has difficulty in accessing burrata, it is pretty easy to make oneself 🙂 !
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I’ll have to try mozzarella first…
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Love the flavour composition…
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A masterclass. Lovely indeed.
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Love the flavour combination Stefan, delicious!
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Thanks, Sandra.
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