Burrata with Roasted Tomatoes

Quality burrata is essential - it should be fresh and creamy inside. Slow-roasting concentrates the tomatoes' sweetness. Room temperature is crucial for burrata - cold mutes its flavor. Tear the burrata open at the table for drama.

Burrata was invented in the early 20th century in Andria, a town in the Murgia plateau of Puglia, southern Italy. Wikipedia and multiple Italian food historians credit the creation to Lorenzo Bianchino, a dairy farmer who is said to have improvised the cheese during a snowstorm that left him unable to sell his daily milk and mozzarella. His solution — filling a fresh mozzarella shell with stracciatella (mozzarella scraps pulled by hand) and fresh cream — created a new cheese whose name comes from burro (butter) and reflects its rich, creamy character. Burrata was a purely local Puglian product until the 1950s, when regional cheese factories began making it commercially. It remained virtually unknown outside southern Italy until the late 20th century; it arrived in the United States around 1997 when Puglia-born cheesemaker Mimmo Bruno began producing it in Los Angeles, and food writer and chef Nancy Silverton's decision to feature it at her restaurant — reported by the Los Angeles Times — set off the burrata boom that made it one of the world's most discussed cheeses by the 2010s. Burrata di Andria was granted EU Protected Geographical Indication status in 2016. Roasting the tomatoes that accompany it concentrates their sweetness through the Maillard reaction, creating a deeper, more caramelized counterpart to the cheese's cool creaminess.