This salad is what I think of whenever I see Burratta cheese. Burratta is one of my favorite, if not the best cheese in the world! I know that’s a bold statement, especially from someone originally native to Wisconsin, who grew up on standard cheddar and American cheese.

If you haven’t had burratta, find yourself some, toast up a bagette, drizzle with some aged balsamic vinegar and have yourself a moment. You will agree that this cheese is amazing!

Burratta is fresh ricotta wrapped in a fresh mozzarella exterior. How can that not be great?! Check out a quartered slice of creamy burratta below.

I have made variations of this salad over the years. Most recent times were – once for Eric’s family pumpkin carving night this fall, another time for my side of the family Christmas and most recently to get more pictures for this post …and of course, to enjoy the salad again. They had variations due to available produce, but the core of the salad was the same. *I will list variations options further in the post.

It’s an impromptu pumpkin carving evening with Eric’s sisters family, Nana and even two out of the three teens. It was slated to be all about pumpkin carving, but if you’d had been there, you would have thought it was about the food.

There was two types of artichoke dip – one with jalepeno and one with out, with various crackers; roasted mushroom soup….

But the stars of the show were the Citrus & Burrata Salad and the Roasted Aritchokes with lemon garlic aoili. How did this all come about, you ask?

It’s the day before Halloween and as luck would have it, no-one had carved a pumpkin. At the same time, we all knew we needed to eat. After multiple texts and conversations, we had picked the house (ours) and discussed miscellaneous ingredients that we wanted to use and then independently decided what we wanted to make. Burratta was on its way over and I knew that I wanted to make this salad.

I started by quick pickling the red onion. While that was resting, I was on to suprem’ing the citrus by cutting off the top and bottom of each piece of citrus and then removing the peel. Over a bowl and using a sharp knife, I carefully cut out each individual slice of the oranges and Grapefruit. I placed the supremed pieces in another bowl and squeeze out all of the juice from the rest of the remaining citrus. That part is quite fun, but messy – you’ll need to wash your hands after that.

The citrus juice becomes the base for the vinegrette by adding flavors of your choice. A quality flavored extra virgin olive oil – approximately 2 parts oil to 1 part citrus juice, then honey for the sweet, vinegar for the acid balance and salt and pepper. You could add fresh herbs to the vinegrette or just on top of the salad itself. Make sure to continously whisk while adding those ingredients to break down the fats in the oil with the acids and the vinegrette thickens slightly.

Next, it’s on to assembling … that is my favorite part of this dish because the end result is so beautifully colorful and inviting. My favorite part so much so that I plated the serving and then did the same for the individual plate.

I had mentioned some variations, so here they are:

• Citrus – if you are unable to find blood oranges, substitute more of regular oranges
• One time, I had fresh figs, another dried figs and yet another no figs. Up to you.
• Burratta – I was unable to find in Northern Wisconsin, so I did the next best thing – fresh mozzarella slices topped with quenelle of ricotta. *Quenelle is when you use 2 spoons to scoop and shape an ingredient into a football like shape.
• Taste the vinegrette as you make it – one time left out the honey because the citrus was sweet enough.
• Pea Shoots can be substituted by any small leafy green.

Citrus & Burrata Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 Orange, supreme’d, juice reserved
• 1 Blood Orange (or 2 regular oranges), supreme’d, juice reserved
• 1 Grapefruit, supreme’d, juice reserved
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp champaign vinegar
• 1 Tbls honey
• Salt and fresh cracked pepper
• 1 red onion, slices and quick pickled (recipe below)
• 2 cups arugula or mixed greens
• 2-3 burrata, quartered
• Figs, fresh or dehydrated, quartered
• Pea greens

Preparation:

Quick Pickled Red Onions: Dissolve 1/2 cup white sugar in 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup water in sauce pan over medium heat. Cut onion in half and slice into half rounds. When sugar is fully dissolved, add onions, stir and remove from heat. Let rest and cool for minimum 30 mins. Can be made days ahead of time.

Dressing: Combine the Citrus juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and whisk until combined.

Rinse and dry greens and arrange on serving platter. Lightly dress the greens with the Citrus dressing.

Top with burrata and fig quarters, pickled onions, citrus slices, and finish pea shoots. Season further with more dressing and salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

* Experimental Spoon Original.