To be honest, I am not exactly sure if I can call this a salad, or if I should call it a dessert. Of course, you could add some peppery arugula leaves to make the dish look more like a salad, or add some toasted almonds to make it more hearty and substantial, but you’d still be unable to ignore the dessert-like flavour combination of tart and sweet, multicoloured berries and incredibly soft and creamy burrata. Though, doesn’t sound much like an actual problem, does it?
This salad would go great alongside some roast chicken, or beef, but it would do pretty well on its own as a simple lunch on a lovely summer’s day (and as I said: maybe serve this salad as a cheese platter-type dessert?). The burrata – an irresistible, fresh buffalo mozzarella stuffed with ‘stracciatella di bufala’ (basically meaning ‘shredded cheese made from buffalo milk’ here) and cream as an ooey-gooey center – really is the star of this dish, while the fresh berries perfectly compliment the cheese’s rich, buttery flavour and texture. When the burrata is sliced open and all the thick cream runs out, this colourful dish really turns into the ‘berries and cream’ of the salads.
So, yeah. Maybe I am just a big kid trying to pass a dessert as a salad… but nobody is mad about that, right?
Burrata Berry Summer Salad
- V
Nutrition per portion
Ingredients
- Small bunch of fresh basil (about 7g) + extra for decorating
- 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil
- 400g mixed berries (blueberry, blackberry, raspberry)
- 1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar (can be substituted with balsamic)
- 1 burrata (150g)
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Prepare the dressing: In a food processor, or with a pestle and mortar, combine basil leaves (thicker stems removed), olive oil, salt and pepper until a relatively smooth and fragrant consistency. Set aside.
- Assemble salad: Wash and clean the berries and toss them with 1 tablespoon of raspberry vinegar.Place berries and burrata on a serving platter and drizzle on the basil-dressing. To serve, sprinkle some extra olive oil and pepper on top of the burrata and sprinkle on some extra shredded basil leaves. Serve immediately.
