This Burrata with Tomatoes and Pesto is a stylish, delicious starter that pairs creamy burrata cheese with summer tomatoes and fresh basil pesto.
Table of Contents
On our last night on vacation in Barcelona, my husband and I went to a Spanish tapas bar and had an absolutely epic meal—each small dish better than the last. I loved everything we ate, but the simple burrata with tomatoes and pesto dish on their specialties menu was just perfect. I knew I’d need to make my own.
Why Make This Recipe
- Highlights in-season summer tomatoes and basil
- Serve as a starter or make it into a main course by adding pasta or a baguette
- Vegetarian and gluten-free too!
🥗 Ingredients
- Pine Nuts: This recipe calls for only a tablespoon of pine nuts, just to add a little crunch to the recipe. If you’re making the pesto, just save an extra tablespoon of pine nuts for garnish after you toast the nuts. If you don’t have pine nuts handy, you could substitute chopped nuts like pecans, pistachios, or walnuts.
- Pesto: I love this recipe with my Simple Lemon Basil Pesto, but you could of course choose a store-bought pesto instead.
- Burrata Cheese: See below for more information on burrata. You could replace this with fresh mozzarella cheese, though you won’t get the delicious taste of the cream in the burrata mixing with the pesto.
- Tomatoes: Choosing ripe, local, farm-grown tomatoes will give you the best flavor for this dish. Cherry tomatoes are the perfect size for this dish, but you could chop up a beefsteak tomato instead.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of pine nuts. Toast for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pine nuts are lightly browned. Set pine nuts aside to cool. Slice 8 ounces of cherry tomatoes in half.
Spoon a wide circle of pesto on the bottom of a serving dish, then place a ball of burrata cheese in the center.
Arrange the cherry tomato halves around the burrata, on top of the pesto. Drizzle burrata and tomatoes with a tablespoon or two of olive oil.
Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts. Grind black pepper over the top, and add flaky sea salt to taste on top of the tomatoes.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Burrata is a cow-milk or buffalo milk cheese made with mozzarella and cream. It is a traditionally Italian cheese that originated in the Apulian region. The outside of burrata is made of solid mozzarella cheese, but it has a center of mozzarella shreds mixed with cream. Burrata often has a little topknot where the outside has been pulled together around the filling and tied to close.
And since the outside layer is made of mozzarella, you can absolutely eat it! To serve burrata, just cut into it, and scoop up the creamy center with a piece of bread. It is delicious drizzled with olive oil and salt, or paired with stone fruits, berries, tomatoes, and melon.
You can make this recipe a few hours in advance, but ideally I would wait to assemble it until just before you are ready to serve.
That said, if you choose to make your own pesto, you can absolutely do that in advance (but bring it to room temperature before using since the oil in pesto can solidify a bit in the fridge). You can also toast the pine nuts in advance and leave on the counter for a couple of days before using (in an airtight container).
👩🍳 Expert Tips
With so few ingredients, it’s essential that you choose the highest quality for each. Use ripe, in-season tomatoes and a good-quality olive oil. Now is the time to drizzle that fancy olive oil you bought somewhere!
The trickiest part of this easy recipe is actually just toasting those pine nuts! Pine nuts can go from no color at all to almost burned quite quickly, especially if your heat is on too high. Refrain from the urge to turn up your heat in order to get them toasted faster. Slow and steady is the way to go.
Got extra pesto sauce after making this burrata and pesto dish? Try this Pesto Salad Dressing, which is perfect for summer! Got extra burrata? Use it to top this Zucchini Mushroom Pasta dish.
Other Delicious Tomato Recipes
If you love summer tomatoes as much as I do, you should check out my other favorite tomato recipes! This Mediterranean Tomato and Cucumber Salad is a must-make. You might also want to check out my Summer archive for recipes featuring the rest of summer’s bounty.
If you try this burrata with tomatoes recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Burrata with Tomatoes and Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
- 8 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 5.5 ounces pesto
- 1 ball of burrata cheese (around 8 ounces)
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add pine nuts.
- Toast for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pine nuts are lightly browned. Set pine nuts aside to cool.
- Slice cherry tomatoes in half.
- Spoon a wide circle of pesto on the bottom of a serving dish, then place burrata in the center.
- Arrange the cherry tomato halves around the burrata, on top of the pesto.
- Drizzle burrata and tomatoes with olive oil.
- Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.
- Grind black pepper over the top, and add flaky sea salt to taste on top of the tomatoes.
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Mimi Rippee says
Beautiful. And so perfect for summer!
Molly Pisula says
Thank you! I can't get enough of this dish in the summer!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls says
Your burrata looks amazing! I am so glad you were able to visit Barcelona. I think it would be worth a visit just for the food!
Chef Molly says
Yes, 100% worth it for the food, but there is so much more too! Should definitely be on everyone's to-visit list!
Chef Mimi says
What a beautiful starter, lunch, meal, salad… whatever! I’ll take it! Where I live, all my cheese is ordered online, and there’s one source that sells stracciatella, which is the inside of burrata, in case you didn’t know. It doesn’t last long, freshness-wise, but then, it also doesn’t last long, eating-wise! So good just on grilled bread. Have a nice trip back.
Chef Molly says
Oooh, yes, just the middle part would be so decadent! Perfect to spread on grilled bread. I might put some fresh tomatoes on there too! And ok, maybe I'd drizzle some basil oil or pesto on top too. 🙂