Roasted Grape and Burrata Crostini
Caramelized roasted grapes with creamy burrata on crisp toast with balsamic and thyme — an ancient fruit reimagined beside one of Italy's most recent cheeses, a 1950s Puglian invention born from food waste and a snowstorm.
- 2 cupsred seedless grapes
- 2 tbspolive oil(divided)
- 1baguette(sliced 1/4 inch thick)
- 8 ozburrata cheese(at room temperature)
- 2 tbspbalsamic glaze
- 1 tbspfresh thyme leaves
- 0.25 tspflaky sea salt
- 0.25 tspblack pepper(freshly cracked)
Grapes can be roasted up to 2 hours ahead; rewarm before assembling. Crostini can be toasted a day ahead. Assemble just before serving.
- 1Preheat oven to 425°F
- 2Toss grapes with 1 tablespoon olive oil and spread on baking sheet
- 3Roast 20-25 minutes until grapes are caramelized and some have burst
- 4Meanwhile, brush baguette slices with remaining olive oil
- 5Toast in oven 8-10 minutes until golden
- 6Tear burrata into pieces and distribute among crostini
- 7Top with warm roasted grapes and any accumulated juices
- 8Drizzle with balsamic glaze
- 9Sprinkle with thyme, sea salt, and pepper
- 10Serve immediately while grapes are still warm
Use grapes that are slightly firm for best results. Burrata must be at room temperature to achieve proper creaminess. Fresh mozzarella works if burrata is unavailable, though you'll miss the creamy center. Champagne grapes (tiny grape variety) are beautiful if available.
Burrata is one of the youngest significant Italian cheeses, with origins in 20th-century Puglia that are as precise as they are charming. Wikipedia confirms that the cheese was developed at the Piana Padura farm in Andria, in the Murgia plateau of southern Italy, most likely by the cheesemaker Lorenzo Bianchino — with records pointing either to the early 1900s or more specifically to 1956. Italy Segreta documents the widely repeated origin story: Bianchino, trapped on his farm by heavy snowfall that blocked the roads to market, needed a way to prevent his fresh milk and mozzarella scraps from going to waste. He stuffed the leftover shreds of mozzarella production — the sfilacetti, or "little rags" of stretched curd — with fresh cream, then enclosed the mixture in a thin outer shell of fresh mozzarella sealed by hand. The result was burrata, whose name derives from the Italian burro (butter), reflecting the rich, cream-filled interior. The outer casing is made using the pasta filata technique of stretching and spinning hot curd — the same method that produces mozzarella — while the interior stracciatella combines hand-torn curd with cream to create the lush, liquid centre. In 1931, Mashed reports, the cheese was officially listed as a local product of Andria in an Italian recipe book. For most of the 20th century it was barely known outside Puglia; Italy Segreta notes that because of its extremely short shelf life, it was considered a luxury. Burrata reached the United States when Puglia-born cheesemaker Mimmo Bruno began producing it at his Los Angeles dairy in the 1990s, and chef Nancy Silverton's decision to put it on the menu at Campanile helped launch it into wider American consciousness. It received Protected Geographical Indication status in 2016 as Burrata di Andria.