Stracciatella is the name of the delightful, soft cheese mass that you find inside a Burrata. Burrata is often referred to as "the Queen of Italian cheese" and both burrata and stracciatella originally come from the Puglia region in Southern Italy. See many recipes with burrata HERE.

Stracciatella is simply fresh mozzarella that is torn into pieces and mixed with cream, and can therefore be easily made at home. You can use fresh cow's milk-based mozzarella, but preferably mozzarella made from buffalo milk (mozzarella di bufala) to make Stracciatella di bufala. A little sprinkle of flake salt (optionally also some ground pepper) and a few drops of good olive oil, and you have the real Italian atmosphere at home.

Stracciatella can be placed in dollops on pizza and pasta dishes in the same way burrata is placed on pizza and pasta dishes (homemade stracciatella is therefore sometimes called "fake burrata" 😊). Serve a bowl of stracciatella with freshly baked focaccia, and you have a delicious Italian appetizer.

You can also prepare small toast pieces with stracciatella which can be served as finger food (see Crostini with stracciatella and oven-baked tomatoes).

Ingredients:

♥ 3 mozzarella balls (see tips)
♥ 1–2 dl cream (see tips)
♥ 0.5 tsp flake salt

Serving:
♥ 1 tbsp olive oil (can be omitted)
♥ a little extra flake salt and optionally ground pepper (can be omitted)

Instructions:

Drain the water from the mozzarella.

Tear the cheeses into pieces and put them in a bowl.

Add the cream and flake salt.

Mix well with a fork.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, preferably longer.

Allow the stracciatella to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

Remove the plastic wrap and stir the stracciatella. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Drizzle a little olive oil on top, and sprinkle a little more flake salt (optionally some ground pepper) before serving.

Lovely and very versatile stracciatella! 😍

Tips:

♥ Fresh mozzarella is shaped like balls and is sold in bags where the cheese balls are in brine (125 grams each).

♥ Adjust the amount of cream depending on how soft the mozzarella you are using is. Preferably use buffalo mozzarella (Mozzarella di bufala) if you can find it. It is often extra soft, and then adding 1 dl of cream is enough. If you use regular, fresh cow's milk mozzarella which is firmer, you should use 2 dl of cream. If you want to make a smaller portion, about 4 tablespoons of cream per mozzarella usually works well.

♥ Homemade stracciatella can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. Let it sit at room temperature for half an hour before serving, so it becomes completely soft again.

♥ Note that Stracciatella is also the name of a famous Italian ice cream (gelato) with lots of small pieces of dark chocolate. This ice cream has nothing to do with the cheese but has the same name because "stracciare" means "to tear up", which refers to how the chocolate is added. 😊

♥ Stracciatella alla romana (or Zuppa di stracciatella) is a traditional Italian soup that also has nothing to do with the cheese. 😊 The soup consists of meat or chicken broth that is added with eggs while stirring, creating lots of egg threads in the soup, making the egg look torn.

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Buon appetito!

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