I thought I would finish up this week with another Italian-style recipe that features cherry tomatoes since that Tuscan Pici Pasta all’Etrusca was so good. Although it had cheese, it wasn’t my favorite Italian cheese: mozzarella. Let’s face it, even the cheaper shredded stuff from the dairy case is good, especially when melted. I’ve even been known to snack on a mozzarella cheese stick (or two). But fresh mozzarella is an undeniable step up and burrata? Fuh-get-about-it! Fresh mozzarella with a creamy center is the holy grail of mozzarella cheese. I’ve made recipes with cold and heated burrata, but today I’m trying it fried. Yes, fried—something I rarely do with any food. But how good does this Fried Burrata with Cherry Tomato Sauce sound? Did I mention it also involves fresh ciabatta bread? Yeah, the trifecta: tomatoes, melted mozzarella, and bread. Mmm!
Crispy Fried Burrata with Cherry Tomato Sauce is basically the equivalent of burrata heaven. It’s sure to be the star of your next party or happy hour!
The Ingredients
As always seems to be the case, I had several ingredients conveniently located in my pantry. Basics like olive oil, salt, sugar, bread crumbs, garlic powder, flour, white wine, and an unopened 32-ounce bottle of canola oil. I even had some parmesan cheese in the refrigerator and some balsamic glaze leftover from a recipe I’ll be posting later.
That left me with a shortlist of ingredients to buy, and my regular grocery store had almost all of them. Cherry tomatoes, garlic, eggs, and burrata were all available, but they were out of fresh ciabatta. I had to go to another local store for that, but there are plenty of grocery stores nearby, so it wasn’t a problem.
Oh, and the burrata I got was actually two small balls instead of one medium/large ball. I would have preferred the single ball, but I had to take what was available.
The Process
There are three parts to this recipe: toast the bread, make the sauce, and fry the burrata. I was working on some parts simultaneously, so I wasn’t able to break the time down. Instead, I had a total of 45 minutes from start to finish.
Things moved fast because I had multiple things happening all at once, so prepping before I began was key. I made sure to have everything measured out and placed in the order I would be using it. It really helped speed things along, and I was done 15 minutes sooner than the 1-hour total time listed on the recipe.
The bread and sauce went according to the recipe, but frying the burrata was slightly quicker. I don’t have a deep fryer, so I had to heat the oil on the stove in a small saucepan. I set the heat on 4 out of 10 (electric) and dropped in my meat thermometer.
Unfortunately, the oil got much hotter than 350℉ because I wasn’t paying attention. It ended up at 432℉ by the time I was ready to fry the burrata. But everything else was ready by that time, so the breading and frying part had my full attention.
Breading the burrata was easy thanks to a large slotted spoon. It allowed me to dip the cheese into the eggs and then let the excess to drain off. It also kept things neater when I dipped into the breadcrumb mixture after. I usually use my hands or tongs for breading, but using hands would have been super messy, and tongs might have squished the burrata.
As I mentioned, I had two small balls of burrata, so I fried them both one at a time. They each took three minutes to turn a deep golden brown. The outsides were nice and crispy, and the insides melted beautifully.
I served this dish in a shallow pasta bowl so it would be easy to dip. A quick squirt of balsamic glaze, a sprig of basil from my AeroGarden, and voila! We had a beautiful and tasty appetizer for dinner.
