On The Coast’s food and wine columnist Shiva Reddy delves into the world of burrata cheese, a soft Italian cheese from Puglia. She says that the key to enjoying burrata is its freshness, and recommends simple pairings like toasted bread, olive oil, and salt.
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oh yes that music means we are ready to dine our food and wine columnist Shiva ready is here with us in studio right now to talk about the best ways to enjoy borata cheese Shiva hi there so good to see you hi so nice to see you I missed you so much well you’re a burst of sunshine in a bright yellow top and you’ve brought this lovely little vase bottle of of fresh flowers and parsley those are actually parsley flowers coming my like the the tall yeah and then those are little freerunner flowers edible I could eat this I could eat this bouquet I won’t do that I won’t do that while you’re sitting in here but I so glad you’re talking about borata it’s one of my very very favorite things um where do we even begin with better understanding borata yeah and like the way you described it just there like your your voice just lowered and there’s just this yumminess to it so barata it is this beautiful soft cheese coming from pulia and now whenever we think about cheese and we think about Italy we think that it goes way Way Way Back thousands of years this one actually was created in the 30s so it’s fairly recent now the exterior of it is kind of firm but gentle it’s made of mozzarella which is then filled with cheese curds that are combined with cream and a little salt and essentially when you cut it open this soft cows milk cheese just kind of like oozes out and I found out that barata translation means buttery so just Rich delicious and the thing about Pata the reason why it’s so special is because it needs to to be had fresh it is literally flown in for you to have that day and you’re basically running against time to try to consume it as fast as you possibly can uh this is such a special cheese to Italy that they like wine have a designation for it so barata de Andrea Andrea being a very specific region in pulan southern Italy that has to be made specifically there in order to be designated as that just like you would a Kean from Tuscany oh I love that now I know uh a lot of restaurants locally will serve borata as you know as an appetizer or that type of thing how easy is it to access as a consumer now it it can be easy uh but it also it’s it’s so hard to find the right one and so you can find it in markets like Whole Foods I saw it at Costco the other week I had to buy it because I was just so curious about it turned out it was quite tasty now with this I recommend going to places like lasam me de Fage or choffies chofy located in bernabe they actually have from my research of eating it so much last year every single week after the farmers market um I found out that they actually have the freshest one so it comes in day of or the next day and it’s just fresh Mel barata now the thing that you’re really looking for if there’s a clear top when you’re purchasing the barata you want that outside brine to be clear you do not want it to kind of look murky at all because yeah exactly because that means it might have ruptured uh and there’s brands that I really like as well like the mergel that one is probably one of the highly esteemed ones that you’ll see in top restaurants here in Vancouver there’s also maldera and then the ones that we classically see in places like a Costco or a Whole Foods or a supermarket would be something like Bella Cera as well I see well I know I went into Gourmet Warehouse um some some time ago and uh sort of word was out the barata has just arrived because you you make a really good point I mean it does get flown in especially from from Italy and fresh is definitely best you want that really really fresh feel so it’s like people were saying get it now it’s this is it’s never going to be fresher it’s basically fresh off the plane at that point so so it’s served in a or served you buy it in a container right with the liquid around it as you say make sure the liquid is clear we’ve got our ball of borata um what are some of the best ways to to prepare it so many it it can be it doesn’t have to be complicated that’s the thing that’s the best part about it I as simply like it with just good bread that’s toasted with some olive oil oil and Flaky salt and that can be it and that’s so good so good or you can have it with compost it is so good with different kinds of fruit compost like Peach you can add some Harissa to that as well and that’s so delicious I love it in a panania salad just bright fresh crunchy and it’s very important to note that like things like tomatoes figs Bruto yeah you’re pointing cuz you know Gloria these are the ones I love it these just have such a beautiful Affinity to it and barata loves salt it loves acid and it can handle sweetness as well um and then yeah those are the ones that I like to have at room temperature or kind of chilled oh I love that when you said tomato um because it went with some friends to to Tuscany some years back and that was sort of the even we have a nice lunch somewhere but you can’t do two big meals in a day or I can’t do two big meals in a day so evening was always like maybe a slice of lemon a bowl of barata and some fresh tomatoes and they were you know the summertime Italian tomatoes and you just said it some flaky salt a little bit of olive oil and that barata was Heaven it’s Heavenly but we we talk about it to the St remember we had barata almost every single day and it we never got tired of it either but um obviously a lot of times it’s it’s served as an appetizer in my case it was dinner and dessert and everything all all wrapped in one can you can you heat it can can you enjoy barata with something hot oh my God absolutely now I had this moment with my partner last night we made pasta at home I made this pomodoro sauce and from scratch it was so tasty with fresh tomatoes and like this oil made with garlic and basil and we topped it off with barata I’ve had this style at laera when I first tried it there I went back three times that week because it was so good and I think we just sat there in silence after our first bite just being like Oh my God this is so tasty again simple flavors right absolutely simple but the good so you had Pomodoro so that’s fresh tomato as well just super simple basil salt and that’s it but also I was at the farmers market yesterday in Kitsilano they have squash blossoms now popping up so you can actually put in squash blossoms with a little bit of garlic some anchovie Citrus and tood so good crunchy on the outside kind of molten on the inside put it on your pizza simple as that let it spread and just enjoy it with everything right I’m going to put you on the spot here but I know you’re uh a very um talented somier as well best wine to pair with that simple dish that you described the ball of barata a drizzle of really gorgeous olive oil and some flaky salt what would you drink with that oh my God you could have anything with it but right now in this moment I want to go to Southern Italy I want to have pulle and wine I maybe want some like beautiful Rich Fano or I want some like Sicilian white that’s like searing with minerality too I’ll take cili white let do love that Shiva thank you thank you that’s Shiva ready our guide to the world of food and wine