{"id":352,"date":"2007-06-06T06:38:24","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T06:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/06\/fresh-pasta-with-basil-tomatoes-and-burrata\/"},"modified":"2013-01-10T19:10:22","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T17:10:22","slug":"fresh-pasta-with-basil-tomatoes-and-burrata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/06\/fresh-pasta-with-basil-tomatoes-and-burrata\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Pasta with Basil, Tomatoes and Burrata"},"content":{"rendered":"

So many of you might know that Shelley came up to visit last weekend<\/a>. It’s nice to be “offline” sometimes with good friends – Michelle<\/a> joined us for an aperitivo as well.<\/p>\n

I think I’m a bit shy about cooking for others now. Since I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting (that becomes rather public after on this blog), often I get nervous about involving friends in my experimentation. Cooking is something I like to do but it can be very personal in certain stages, a bit of challenge with myself more than anything.<\/p>\n

Back in the States, there are several meals I cooked for large crowds and I really enjoyed it – Thanksgiving being one and something that I also did in Rome (but yet have to do it in Milan). I can cook a big turkey with no problems, even if it fills up the entire oven here! I decided to make pasta for Shelley since the past few<\/a> times<\/a> I made it, it went pretty well.<\/p>\n

\"Pomodoro<\/a><\/p>\n

I also didn’t carry my camera around this weekend with Shelley which is why you will see mainly pics from her about the weekend<\/a>. And when I brought out the camera while I was cooking on Sunday, it was obvious why. S is used to my photo-taking, but I’ve learned that I should start preparing much earlier than I want to, and to serve others first so that my picture-taking can leave some semblance of a normal (and hot) meal.<\/p>\n

Luckily, S and Shelley cracked open a bottle of white wine she had brought (at a whoppingly delicious 15% alcohol content) and snacked on Pugliese taralli<\/strong> while I went shutter-happy. I of course had the occasional sip from my glass and by the time we finished the meal, I was glad I had taken pictures first so mine wouldn’t be out of focus!<\/p>\n

I wanted to incorporate burrata<\/strong> in this pasta dish, a special cheese from Puglia (and more specifically, Andria) and sooo delicious. The wikipedia entry on burrata<\/a> is quite interesting. Burrata is made by taking mozzarella “threads” or pasta and then stuffing it with cream and closing it up like a little ball. The mozzarella doesn’t form a rind, but the outer layer is harder\/denser than the creamy inside.<\/p>\n

\"Burrata\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I would have loved to be there when someone came up with the idea for the burrata: “You know, Giuseppe, this mozzarella is good, but what if it was filled with cream? That would be ottimo!!” Long live the gluttons<\/strong> (myself included), the ones that said “this could be better<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Here’s my recipe for basic pasta<\/a> (minus the lemons) – in this version, I added several tablespoons of peperoncino<\/em> (hot pepper) to the mix and made the smaller spaghetti.<\/p>\n

\"Fresh<\/a><\/p>\n

I kept the “sauce” simple and light and just cut up these tiny pomodorini, a few leaves of basil and of course our wonderful Pugliese olive oil. I didn’t mix the burrata in with the pasta, but rather put a few slices\/dollops on the side of the dish and left the rest out for people to add to their own dish as they wanted. There wasn’t any burrata left at the end of the meal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Fresh<\/a><\/p>\n

In Italiano……..<\/strong>
\nQualche volta mi vergogno di cucinare per altre persone. Lo trovo una cosa molto personale il processo di sperimentare (e sbagliare) in cucina.<\/p>\n

Negli US, ho spesso cucinato pasti grandi per amici (sopratutto a universita’) – sono abbastanza al mio agio con il pasto del Giorno di Ringraziamento, per esempio – l’ho pure cucinato a Roma pero’ non ancora qua a Milano. Un tacchino che riempe tutto il forno? Non vedo l’ora! Ho deciso di fare la pasta fatto in casa perche’ l’ho fatto altre volte e cosi’ sono abbastanza sicura di non sbagliare.<\/p>\n

Non ho portato la mia macchina fotografica in giro questo weekend con Shelley, perche’ quando lo tiro fuori, si capisce perche’. Ormai ho imparato di cominciare di cucinare (e poi fotografare) il piu’ presto possibile per poter poi mangiare con normalita’. Fortunatamente, Shelley ha portato una bottiglia di vino bianco (fortissimo a 15%) e c’erano i taralli pugliesi per stuzzicare l’apetito. Ho assagiato il vino pero’ volevo finire le foto prima di ubriacarmi (ed era facile con quel vino).<\/p>\n

Volevo incorporare la burrata<\/strong> con questa pasta, che la trovo spettacolare! Mi sarebbe piaciuto di esserci quando l’hanno inventato la burrata – magari il discorso era cosi’: “Sai, Giuseppe, questa mozzarella e’ buona pero’ non sarebbe meglio con un po’ di panna dentro?”<\/p>\n

W i golosi<\/strong>!!! Certo che mi considero un di loro, quelli che hanno detto, “Non sarebbe meglio cosi’….?”<\/p>\n

Con questa ricetta ho incluso il peperoncino nella pasta, per dare un tocco piccante al pasto. Non ho fatto una salsa con la burrata, invece ho messo alcuni pezzi con la pasta (condita con olio pugliese, basilico e questi pomodorino piccolini). Non e’ rimasto neanche un granello della burrata<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Pomodorini\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So many of you might know that Shelley came up to visit last weekend. It’s nice to be “offline” sometimes with good friends – Michelle joined us for an aperitivo as well. I think I’m a bit shy about cooking for others now. Since I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting (that becomes rather public…<\/p>\n

Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,3,2,20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-entree","7":"category-food","8":"category-italy","9":"category-puglia","10":"category-recipe","11":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-5G","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1129,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/12\/how-to-make-fresh-homemade-spaghetti-alle-vongole-pasta-with-clams\/","url_meta":{"origin":352,"position":0},"title":"How to Make Fresh Homemade Spaghetti alle Vongole, Pasta with Clams","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"February 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For my 2009 \"I Dare\" Cooking Challenges, I said that I would be making 12 different types of pasta at home this year. 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