Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Burrata Bruschetta with Grilled Figs – Bringing Sexy Back!

If you watch as much food television as I do, you hear the adjective "sexy" thrown around quite a bit, and more often than not, it just doesn't fit. No matter how nice a bowl of chili looks, or how beautifully a game hen glistens, they're not really "sexy."

This burrata bruschetta with grilled figs on the other hand? Totally "sexy!"
If there were such a thing as word association flash cards of food, the most common result for this one would be "sexy." Okay, I'm going to stop using those quotation marks now.

Above and beyond how awesome this recipe tastes, it's so nice to be able to post such an aesthetically pleasing dish after the recent string of homely food. I appreciate all the nice comments about the sausage and zucchini stew, but if that thing was a blind date, it would have been described as, "having a nice personality."
Depending on the location, I can't guarantee you'll be able to find burrata and fresh black mission figs, but if you can, you really need to give this a try. I know someone will ask, so I'll tell you right now, there really isn't a great substitute for this heavenly cheese.

A very fresh mozzarella would be the closest, but it would still be like substituting for Beyonce with Wanda Sykes. That's no insult to Wanda Sykes (
she has a great personality), but in the sexy department, Mrs. Jay-Z is in a whole other league, and so is this burrata and grilled fig bruschetta. Enjoy!




Ingredients:
burrata cheese
fresh figs
Italian bread
balsamic vinaigrette (1 part vinegar to 1 part extra virgin olive oil - shaken vigorously)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste


View the complete recipe

17 comments:

Donna said...

Sexy & easy .. what more could you want.
As soon as I track down some burrata cheese it'll be on my table.
Thanks Chef John!

Asian Malaysian said...

It kills me whenever you bring up dishes that scream why south east asia sucks. Ill be in seclusion with my ugly stew.

Gilbert Ratchet said...

References to Jay-Z, Dr Dre, Digable Planets, and more...seems to me like Chef John is a hip hop enthusiast.

blogagog said...

Can you use unripe figs? The birds are eating all of our figs about 2 days before they ripen :(

They don't taste good raw, but maybe grilled like you did here?

Anonymous said...

omg. perfect for breakfast in bed

Chef John said...

never tried unripe, but i doubt it

Anonymous said...

So, about the pronunciation of bruschetta ............

Anonymous said...

Another brilliant recipe Chef John but, WHOA WHOA WHOA this new set up you've got here with the background and weird sliding screen is strange! BWA it's confusing me! ;) i'ts all good though.

duck

Chef John said...

come on! I pride myself on mispronouncing Italian words!!

Anonymous said...

hey Chef John. Today is my mom's birthday and I was wonder if you have any suggestions????? I was thinking pasta primavera.. (did I spell that right?) and roasted garlic spread on baguette. still needs something else with you though.. I hope you have some advice. :D

Duck

Chef John said...

wow, without knowing her that's an impossible question! What's her favorite food? Make her that.

Anonymous said...

Is there another cheese you can substitute for Burrata? Its hard to find round here.

Chef John said...

as you may have read in the post, a soft, fresh mozzarella would be the closest, but also, a mild goat cheese, or even a brie could work.

Alec006 said...

Hi, In Argentina we call it queso mantecoso and it's really cheap for not to say the cheapest one.

Steve said...

Chef:

Absolutely insanely great! I made this dish this evening and it was wonderful.

I had a bit of burrata and a few figs left over and even without the bread or the balsamic vinegar . . . yum! Almost like ice cream.

The only downside I had was that with grilling the figs skin side down you have to watch very carefully that the skin doesn't burn and get a bit crunchy. I think next time I back off the heat and go cut side down.

Unknown said...

Well, not as sexy as described but I had to skimp on ingredients. Not because of money but because the ingredients called for are just not available. No Burata, substitute buffalo mozzarella (your right, BTW, Wanda Sykes all the way). No Black mission figs by name but a reasonable substitution of black figs from California. All in all, not bad

Chef John said...

yes, the creamy burata really makes it!