Mozzarella vs. burrata

Mozzarella is produced from curd, which you get by adding lactic ferments and rennet to pasteurized cow’s milk. The next steps involve cutting the curd and extracting the whey. At this point, the curd is cut into strips and kneaded in boiling water, manually or mechanically, to make it “spin” or “stretch,” thus transforming it into pieces of mozzarella. The final phase is cooling the pieces in water. 

Burrata is also made from the stretched curd of the mozzarella, but in this case, it’s not the main substance of the dairy product – instead, it serves as a casing. Inside, there is a soft and creamy filling: stracciatella, frayed pasta filata mixed with cream. While mozzarella has a more delicate taste and a more elastic texture, burrata is softer and more flavorful – but also, due to the cream, higher in calories."

Tips for making caprese inspired tomato salad.

Tomatoes.

Fresh tomatoes are optimum.  I prefer the taste of cherry tomatoes, but any good tasting tomatoes work well.  If your tomatoes are not bite size, cut them into wedges. Using a variety of color like purple, red and yellow tomatoes makes the salad more eye appealing.

Basil.

This caprese inspired tomato salad includes basil, arugula and oregano.  For the basil, I prefer to cut it into thin stips.  If you don't have an herb cutter, use a very sharp knife. One of my chef friends told me that cutting basil with a blunt knife leads to bruising the basil which results in brown edges.  The best way to " "chiffonade" (cut into thin strips) herbs is to stack the leaves, roll it into a cigar and slice thinly. Depending on whether you roll the leaves from top to bottom or side to side will determine the length of the strip.  I usually use my herb cutter to cut the leaves.