One of the pleasures of summer is that it comes with an array of wonderful summer dishes. I don’t know how many favourite dishes I have but this roasted cherry tomatoes and burrata dish is definitely in my top 5. A wonderful balance between sweet and sour and then there is the creaminess of the burrata. I like to place a scoop of burrata on my toasted sourdough bread, a few roasted cherry tomatoes and just dig in. A chilled glass of white or rose is well suited to this dish.
Burrata is a soft cow’s milk cheese that, from the outside, could be mistaken for fresh mozzarella. Both are plump white orbs of Italian cheese, one more solid and elastic than the other. Burrata cheese is distinguishable by its loose texture: small, soft cheese curds and cream are packaged inside an outer shell made of mozzarella. You can usually substitute burrata with fresh mozzarella, though it won’t have quite the same lush, creamy texture.
Just a few pointers when making this recipe, use a griddle pan to toast your sourdough to get those pretty toasted lines, if you have a BBQ on the go, even better!
The technique of slicing the basil into thin ribbons is called “Chiffonade”. Just a fancy word for a very easy step which you can look at here.
Bon appetite!!!
You’ll need
- 200g x cherry tomatoes, washed, dried and halved
- 3 x garlic cloves, chopped
- Olive oil
- Sprig of fresh thyme (leaves only)
- Fresh basil
- Sourdough bread
- 1 x fresh burrata, drained and placed on towel paper to get rid of excess moisture.
- Maldon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat you oven to 190°C.
- Place the cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (Cut side up)
- Sprinkle over the chopped garlic, thyme, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Using your hands and give it a good toss.
- Roast in the oven for 20 minutes and remove to cool to room temperature.
- Whilst the tomatoes are roasting, slice you sourdough (I used 3 slices for one person).
- Drizzle with olive oil on both sides and toast in a hot griddle pan until you see the toasted lines forming, repeat on the other side.
- To serve this dish, place the cherry tomatoes, toasted sourdough and burrata on your serving platter.
- Scatter with chiffonade of basil. (This is thinly sliced ribbons of basil, see the link "how-to" in the heading.
- Drizzle with olive oil and season with maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper.