Fresh News

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Week of June 9th, 2008

Now you might have noticed in the past my obsession with Burrata. Burrata is a beautiful cheese that I have written about before. It is the skin of mozzarella stuffed with stracciatella or the “little rags” of mozzarella left after making prodigious amounts of mozzarella, and cream. It is simply a gorgeous cheese rich and light all at the same time. I love it with tomatoes, oil, greens, and just on its own. After having it for a few days I take a break, but I am back at it after a week. Here is a link to one of the most informative articles I have ever read about burrata. You can see that I am not the only one obsessed about it! There are so many great suggestions on how to use burrata that it is really worth the read. Most interestingly enough is how so many people that are familiar with burrata consider it the centerpiece of a meal. Amazing for a cheese that was invented to use up leftovers!

http://www.thewinenews.com/octnov06/cuisine.asp

I think I am going to try it with haricot verts tonight!

Our burrata comes from Italy although we have had the Gioia
Domestic before and it is quite good. We have an excellent supplier from Brooklyn, an Italian family business with connections and roots reaching far back to Italy. Their burrata is one of the best we have ever offered. It comes in a loose fitting plastic bag, wrapped with the asfodelo leaf as described in the above article. I take it home, slip it out of the bag and into a bowl and then decide what to do. Often that is just adding a little salt and oil and eating it, but as you can see from the article there are many uses for burrata. This is typical when food is just so good, yet basic that cutting edge chefs and food people look to create new dishes and taste treats from the delicious simplicity that exists in them. Some foods are just so good they become a standard. Mozzarella is that in this country. It is one of the top three cheeses, probably the top cheese eaten here. Think pizza. Burrata will not replace it as it is so artisanal and fragile (in reality good mozzarella is too, it is just that there is a lot of factory made mozzarella that makes up a majority of that big number) yet for those looking beyond the ordinary mozzarella, burrata fills the bill.

To go with your burrata, one of the top picks amongst burrata cognoscenti are tomatoes. Fresh, healthy tomatoes provide a perfect counterpoint to the milky goodness of burrata. My favorite of the moment are the wonderful New Jersey greenhouse grown beauties from Nick Russo in Allentown, NJ. We have been selling these tomatoes for over 30 years including a time when Nick was not growing them and another farmer was. They are always red, ripe, and delicious. The fact that they are so local is such a plus and very comforting. I love Nick’s tomatoes! They stretch the good tomato season all the way back into May.

Nick has great strawberries too. I thought local New Jersey strawberries may be going extinct but this year has been the best in 10. New Jersey grown strawberries are sweeter and juicier when they are grown in good weather conditions by a good farmer. This year that perfect storm has occurred at Nick’s farm and we are proud to offer them to you. They are best right out of hand but if like me you like them at breakfast and dinner than cut them up, add a little sugar to draw out the juices and top them on to any of your favorite foods, from cereal to ice cream. They are a short lived delicious produce treat from our garden state.

Enjoy and eat fresh!

Bob

P.S. Have you joined..."The Good Stuff Club," yet?