burrata

noun

bur·​ra·​ta bu̇-ˈrä-tə 

variants or less commonly burrata cheese

plural burratas also burrata cheeses

: mozzarella formed into a ball-shaped casing that contains curds and cream

… give us a single ball of burrata with some olive oil and crackers, and we'll be more than happy.

—Olivia Harvey

It was not one of those petite, tennis-ball-size burratas. … Nearly as big as a cantaloupe, the wobbly burrata … was bursting on the plate, the oozing cream pooled around it.

—Melissa Clark

Roughly spread some creamy burrata … on the bread, then add some cherry tomatoes …

—Geoff Last

… Perry plates a dollop of soft, delicately flavored burrata cheese and dusts it in black pepper.

—Brenna Houck

Examples of burrata in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Show-stopping dishes include burrata with tomato sorbet, yellowtail with XO sauce and mezcal-roasted pineapple, and a French omelette with Ibérico ham and black truffle gruyère. —Nicholas Derenzo, AFAR Media, 23 Jan. 2025

Check out the chocolate miso bread pudding, or the burrata with chili oil and Thai basil. —Wilder Davies, Bon Appétit, 17 Jan. 2025

This month, don’t miss the Angelo & Franco burrata with Tenbrink Farms persimmons three ways, red frill mustard, and woodfired sourdough bread — the persimmon variation blanketing the plate is like an adult fruit roll-up in the best way. —Keyla Vasconcellos, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025

Nadia Pugh Mincey and Kelly Rhodes’ natural wine bar and bottle shop offers seasonal caprese salads, torched burrata with prosciutto, grilled Brie cheese sandwiches and other shareable plates. —Benjy Egel, Sacramento Bee, 6 Jan. 2025

However, the burrata and flan are mainstays on the menu for a reason. —Axios Charlotte Team, Axios, 19 July 2024

And appetizers as disparate as burrata, hamachi collar, and fideos somehow all make sense together in the chefs’ hands. —Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Dec. 2024

Try making a batch and serving them with bruschetta dip and burrata cheese—yum! —Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Dec. 2024

The base of Brie My Guest is brie (of course) and burrata flavored ice creams with swirls of apricot and mixed with almonds and pistachio bits. —John Graham, Orlando Sentinel, 25 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian, originally southern regional, noun derivative from feminine of burrato "flavored or spread with butter," from burra "butter" (borrowed from Old French bure, going back to Late Latin būtrum, by syncope from Latin būtyrum, variant of būtȳrum, būtūrum butter entry 1) + -ato -ate entry 3

Note: An early occurrence of burrata and description of the product is in Guida gastronomica d'Italia (Milan: Touring Club Italiano, 1931), p. 395, in a list of dishes typical of the city of Andria in Puglia: "Oltre i communi latticini, è prodotto tipico locale la burrata, sfera di pasta di caciocavallo contenente del latte di bufala con panna i filacci di pasta di provola o di mozzarella" ("Beside the common dairy items, a typical local product is burrata, a ball of caciocavallo [a cheese made from stretching fresh curds in hot water] containing buffalo milk with cream and strands of provola [another cheese made from stretched curds] or mozzarella"). The first maker of the cheese was allegedly one Lorenzo Bianchino Chieppa, who, perhaps in the 1920's, worked at the Piana Padula farm near Castel del Monte, a medieval castle in the Andria commune. The farm already produced balls of stretched-curd cheese stuffed with butter—as an innovation it was decided to fill the balls instead with strands of leftover mozzarella and cream. The innovation met with unexpected success, first in Andria, and eventually far beyond it. The traditional name for the butter-filled cheese containers was manteca. (An illustration of the product can be found at the Italian Wikepedia entry for manteca.) Presumably burrata was another name for this or a similar product, and it was transferred to the mozzarella-and-cream filled containers, despite their lack of butter. For references see the article "La burrata. Un prodotto made in Puglia" by Debora di Fazio in Peccati di lingua: le 100 parole italiane del Gusto (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2015), pp. 51-53. See also Lessico etimologico italiano, vol. 8, column 499.

First Known Use

1981, in the meaning defined above