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

Menu highlights include burrata with honeycomb and roasted balsamic strawberries, eggs baked in Calabrian tomato sauce and limoncello tiramisu. —Jane Godiner, Baltimore Sun, 29 Apr. 2026

Guests at the dinner received the first part of their meal — a spring pea & burrata salad — but the prime chateaubriand steak and Maine lobster was not served. —Mike Stunson, USA Today, 28 Apr. 2026

The approximately 2,000 attendees of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner had barely dug into their spring pea and burrata salad when a series of apparent gunshots rang out on the other side of the doors to the ballroom at the Washington Hilton. —Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 27 Apr. 2026

All of that was on plenty of minds as the audience started on spring pea and burrata salad and waiters prepared to serve a main course starring prime chateaubriand and Maine lobster. —Calvin Woodward, Chicago Tribune, 26 Apr. 2026

Brunch — Indaco for Panettone french toast, the burrata Benedict or a crispy chicken biscuit with seasonal jam. —Denise K. James, AJC.com, 26 Apr. 2026

Waiters had just begun to clear plates of spring pea and burrata salad. —Andrea Castillo, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2026

The first course consists of a burrata and prosciutto salad, spicy rigatoni, lamb lollipops or smoked salmon cheese puffs. —Carlos Rico, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2026

Made with juicy strawberries, creamy burrata, and crispy prosciutto, then finished with a maple-balsamic vinaigrette to enhance the sweetness of the berries, this salad a surefire winner. —Cameron Beall, Southern Living, 20 Apr. 2026

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