Before Italy, Mozzarella was my favorite cheese. Silly American, I just didn’t know any better. What I discovered during my time in Italy is a delightful cheese called “burrata”. To put it simple: Imagine a mozzarella ball stuffed with cottage cheese. Burrata means “buttered” in Italian, so how could I not love this cheese? It starts out being made just like any other mozzarella cheese but is shaped into a pouch and filled with left over mozzarella pieces and topped with cream.
I thought of making these appetizers for a couple reasons: A) Easy to store and make ahead of time and B) I had something similar back home at a fancy happy hour in Seattle, and C) i wanted to be creative but not go too far out there as I was preparing them for a much larger dinner. So if you enjoy Mozzarella stuffed dates wrapped in bacon back home, you’ll love these. I also enjoy this balsamic glaze recipe since it doesn’t require any special ingredients, contains items I always shave around the house, it’s easy to make, but more importantly tasty! Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients:
- A package of dried dates
- Fresh Burrata or mozzarella works as well
- A package of fresh prosciutto (choose the good stuff since you won’t be cooking it)
- Parsley/mint/something green for garnish
The directions for the dates is really simple. Just open open a whole date, stuff it with a small amount of cheese, and wrap the slices of proscitto around it. Be sure to pull tightly as you wrap it around the date, but not too tght that you will tear the meat. The prosciutto will keep the date and cheese held together.
Continue this process until your tray is full or you run out of ingredients. Any extras make for nice garnish on the tray.
Balsamic glaze recipe:
- 1 cup of balsamic vinegar (no need for the fancy stuff)
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1. Combine the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer until it becomes syrupy (20 min). Keep in mind that the when the sauce cools down, it will become thicker. So don’t reduce the sauce too much!
3. You can refrigerate this sauce, but make sure when you serve it, it’s at room temperature.
This sauce is great on roasted vegetables as well!
