“This is a wonderful way to eat burrata” commented the Chief Taster as we tucked into this luxurious toastie. Here in Italy, our local supermarket doesn’t always have fresh burrata, but when it does, it’s sublime and I always snap it up. I like to experiment with different ways of eating it, and this simple toasted sandwich, with its crispy toast and soft pillowy burrata has emerged as one of the best.

Recipe for Bountiful Burrata Toasties

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp capers – rinsed of brine or salt
• 1 pepper (the green-turning-red type looks rather fun)
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed with some salt
• olive oil
• some fresh, or dried oregano
• 6 pitted black olives
• ½ lemon
• a couple of slices of sourdough bread, or a large ciabatta bun
• a ball of burrata (about 330g/12 oz)
• Urfa pepper flakes, or some freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Take the burrata out of the fridge, and place it near your hob to warm it up.
2. Warm some olive oil in a large frying pan, while you deseed the pepper, and slice it.
3. Begin frying the pepper – fry until it’s just beginning to char.
4. Warm the oven or grill, to toast the bread (having cut it open if it’s a big roll).
5. Peel and crush the garlic with the salt if you haven’t already. Add to the pepper just as it’s beginning to char. Reduce the heat. Fry a couple more minutes, to cook the garlic through. Take the pan off the heat.
6. Toast the bread. Don’t try to skip this step. The texture of the crispy toast gives a delightful counterpoint to the soft burrata!
7. Roughly chop the olives, and add, together with the capers, to the frying pan.
8. Divide the bread between two plates. Drizzle some olive oil over the bread. Divide the burrata, and place over the bread. Divide the mix in the frying pan between the two plates, putting it over the pillowy bed of burrata.
9. Zest the lemon over the two plates, then squeeze the juice over, and drizzle over more olive oil.
10. Sprinkle with the Urfa pepper flakes, or grind over some pepper. Also some textured salt (Maldon ideally) if you think it needs it.