burrata

noun

bur·​ra·​ta bu̇-ˈrä-tə 

variants or less commonly burrata cheese

plural burratas also burrata cheeses

: mozzarella formed into a ball-shaped casing that contains curds and cream

… give us a single ball of burrata with some olive oil and crackers, and we'll be more than happy.

—Olivia Harvey

It was not one of those petite, tennis-ball-size burratas. … Nearly as big as a cantaloupe, the wobbly burrata … was bursting on the plate, the oozing cream pooled around it.

—Melissa Clark

Roughly spread some creamy burrata … on the bread, then add some cherry tomatoes …

—Geoff Last

… Perry plates a dollop of soft, delicately flavored burrata cheese and dusts it in black pepper.

—Brenna Houck

Examples of burrata in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What began as a quick bite to hold me over until dinner turned into a fully fledged feast of lemon tagliolini with swordfish ragu, maccheroncini cacio e pepe with citrus, and paccheri pasta with tomatoes, burrata, and basil. —Susmita Baral, Travel + Leisure, 7 Sep. 2025

On Thursday, chef Joe Shirley served up spicy edamame hummus, burrata, A5 wagyu dumplings, hamachi carpaccio, mezze rigatoni, Dubai chocolate tiramisu and more. —Kansas City Star, 4 Sep. 2025

Peaches, burrata, prosciutto, basil, and a drizzle of hot honey. —Sierra Shafer, Outside, 28 Aug. 2025

To put their own spin on it, their chefs now offer burger or hot dog bars with a variety of creative toppings, as well as a burrata bar, augmented with seasonal produce. —Sylvie Bigar, Forbes.com, 28 Aug. 2025

Both menus also offer the wonderfully creamy burrata as a first course, served with marinated beetroot, pickled red onions, basil oil and sourdough croutons. —Constance Ogle, Miami Herald, 1 Aug. 2025

For a casual evening, start with pizza and burrata at the Waves Grill and then head to the Terrace Café, getting sushi and grilled seafood or steak at the buffet before nabbing a table outside. —Fran Golden, AFAR Media, 28 July 2025

The burrata is cool and rich, faintly sweet and a plenty salty with a twinge of sourness. —Bradley Hohulin, IndyStar, 26 July 2025

Sandwich fixings include roasted eggplant, spicy zucchini, burrata and pistachio cream. —Carolyn Stein, Chicago Tribune, 8 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian, originally southern regional, noun derivative from feminine of burrato "flavored or spread with butter," from burra "butter" (borrowed from Old French bure, going back to Late Latin būtrum, by syncope from Latin būtyrum, variant of būtȳrum, būtūrum butter entry 1) + -ato -ate entry 3

Note: An early occurrence of burrata and description of the product is in Guida gastronomica d'Italia (Milan: Touring Club Italiano, 1931), p. 395, in a list of dishes typical of the city of Andria in Puglia: "Oltre i communi latticini, è prodotto tipico locale la burrata, sfera di pasta di caciocavallo contenente del latte di bufala con panna i filacci di pasta di provola o di mozzarella" ("Beside the common dairy items, a typical local product is burrata, a ball of caciocavallo [a cheese made from stretching fresh curds in hot water] containing buffalo milk with cream and strands of provola [another cheese made from stretched curds] or mozzarella"). The first maker of the cheese was allegedly one Lorenzo Bianchino Chieppa, who, perhaps in the 1920's, worked at the Piana Padula farm near Castel del Monte, a medieval castle in the Andria commune. The farm already produced balls of stretched-curd cheese stuffed with butter—as an innovation it was decided to fill the balls instead with strands of leftover mozzarella and cream. The innovation met with unexpected success, first in Andria, and eventually far beyond it. The traditional name for the butter-filled cheese containers was manteca. (An illustration of the product can be found at the Italian Wikepedia entry for manteca.) Presumably burrata was another name for this or a similar product, and it was transferred to the mozzarella-and-cream filled containers, despite their lack of butter. For references see the article "La burrata. Un prodotto made in Puglia" by Debora di Fazio in Peccati di lingua: le 100 parole italiane del Gusto (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2015), pp. 51-53. See also Lessico etimologico italiano, vol. 8, column 499.

First Known Use

1981, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for burrata

• agata
• bharata
• cantata
• costata
• ephrata
• errata
• falcata
• mahratta
• regatta
• serrata
• sonata
• stigmata