STRACCIATELLA TOAST WITH BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES

Stracciatella is the inside of a burrata sold on its own: torn strands of fresh mozzarella soaked in cream. Most people buy a tub, use a spoonful, then wonder what else to do with it.

This is the answer. Five minutes of work, four ingredients, and it eats like something off a Seminyak menu.

Serves 4 as a starter or snack.

Ingredients

• 250g Gioia stracciatella, cold
• 400g cherry tomatoes, mixed colours if you can find them
• 4 thick slices sourdough or good country bread
• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish
• 2 cloves garlic, one sliced thin, one left whole
• Small handful basil leaves
• Flaky salt and black pepper
• Optional: a pinch of chilli flakes, a splash of balsamic

Method

1. Take the stracciatella out of the fridge

Do this first. It needs twenty minutes at room temperature or it will taste of nothing. Leave it sealed in its cream.

2. Blister the tomatoes

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan over high heat until it shimmers. Add the tomatoes whole and leave them alone for a minute so they catch colour. Shake the pan, add the sliced garlic and the chilli flakes if using, and cook another two to three minutes until the skins split and some collapse.

Season with salt, turn off the heat, and let them sit in the pan. The juice that pools is the best part of the dish, so do not drain it.

3. Toast the bread

Grill, toast or pan-fry the slices in the remaining oil until deeply golden on both sides. While still hot, rub each slice once with the cut side of the whole garlic clove. Once, not five times.

4. Build

Spoon the stracciatella straight onto the warm toast and spread it loosely. Do not flatten it, the strands are the texture you paid for. Pile the tomatoes and their juices on top.

5. Finish

Tear the basil over, add flaky salt, a good grind of pepper and a last drizzle of olive oil. A few drops of balsamic if you like the sweetness. Eat immediately, while the bread is still crisp and the cheese is still cool against it.

Notes from our kitchen

• Warm tomatoes, cool cheese. That contrast is the whole dish. If the tomatoes are screaming hot they will melt the stracciatella into a puddle, so give the pan two minutes off the heat first.
• Cheese on the bread, not under the tomatoes. It acts as a barrier and keeps the toast from going soggy.
• Build at the table. Toast in one dish, tomatoes in another, tub of stracciatella in the middle. It holds up much better than plating ten minutes early.
• No stracciatella? Tear open a burrata and use the inside. Same cheese, more drama.

Variations worth trying

• Swap the tomatoes for grilled zucchini, lemon zest and mint.
• Add anchovy to the pan with the garlic for a salty backbone.
• Skip the bread and serve the tomatoes and stracciatella over hot pasta. It becomes dinner.
• Spoon it over roasted pumpkin with chilli oil in the wet season.

Stracciatella is made fresh and is at its best within two days of opening. Order a tub and we will deliver it across Bali.