This elegant burrata pasta with tomatoes, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar comes together in under 20 minutes for a surprisingly easy date night dinner.
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When you think of summer recipes, pasta doesn’t typically come to mind (unless you’re thinking about pasta salad). But the word pasta doesn’t have to conjure up images of spaghetti and meatballs or cheesy carbonara. Pasta is a delicious dish that can be enjoyed year-round, especially when served with fresh, in-season ingredients. That’s why our burrata pasta with blistered tomatoes makes the perfect summer dinner, complete with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar.
This recipe was inspired by two things: my recent obsession with burrata cheese, and a delicious appetizer we ate in Paso Robles earlier this year. Burrata cheese with tomato, bacon, and a balsamic drizzle on toasted bread – super simple, yet one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. We already knew tomatoes and balsamic tasted incredible with fresh mozzarella, but those two ingredients served with burrata? It was a whole new flavor profile for us to fall in love with.
Anytime we eat something that delicious, we immediately get to thinking on how we can shape the flavors we loved most into a new and exciting recipe (just take a look at our chorizo sweet potato fry pizza, inspired by a burrito Alex ate in La Jolla). When I think of tomatoes, burrata, and balsamic, my mind goes to Italian food. So that’s how the idea for this burrata pasta came to be.
If you’re wondering how to put burrata on pasta or looking for an easy date night recipe, keep reading to learn more about this summer dish!
Burrata Pasta With Blistered Tomato Ingredients
What goes into a pasta with burrata and tomatoes? For the best pasta recipe with burrata cheese, we use the following ingredients:
- Sweet grape tomatoes – Grape tomatoes are the perfect size for serving whole, but they’re often too sour for a pasta dish. Look for the sweet variety for this recipe. They’ll blister beautifully and provide just the right amount of juiciness for the sauce.
- Minced garlic – Every good pasta dish needs garlic! Add some to the tomatoes while they’re blistering and the caramelized bits that get stuck to the pan will infuse into the sauce later on.
- White wine – We use a dry white wine to deglaze the pan and act as a base for our sauce. A mid-quality sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio balances out the acidity from the tomatoes nicely.
- Olive oil – We use two kinds of olive oil in our recipe: a lower-quality one for cooking and a high-quality extra virgin olive oil for seasoning and finishing. We learned this trick from Thomas Keller’s MasterClass – you can actually burn extra virgin olive oil if you cook with it at too high of a temperature. So we don’t use the good stuff to blister the tomatoes!
- Balsamic vinegar of Modena – This high-quality variety of balsamic vinegar, produced in Italy, is deliciously thick and glossy. It’s our favorite kind for drizzling over upscale dishes like this burrata pasta.
- Fresh basil – Fresh herbs make all the difference! Add some chopped basil to the sauce and garnish your plate with whole leaves for a bright and beautiful flavor.
- Burrata cheese – We chose a high-quality locally produced burrata cheese to be the star of our dish. It’s creamy and so delicious with the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.
- Pasta shells – We tried a few different pasta shapes and shells came out on top. They’re the best for scooping up delicious bites of tomato, balsamic, burrata, and basil!
- Salt – Salt is a necessary ingredient in almost any dish since it’s a flavor enhancer. Add just a bit to the sauce and it’ll make a huge difference.
Here’s a bonus tip: only cook with wine you would drink!
As we learned from Alice Waters’ MasterClass, the quality of the wine you cook with massively impacts the final outcome of a dish. And we can tell you from firsthand experience that she is 100% correct! We cheaped out on the wine in the early stages of developing this recipe, and what a mistake it was. It can be tempting to cook with cheap wine since using “good” wine might feel like a waste – but it’s definitely worth it. Once you taste the difference, you’ll be happy to sacrifice a few ounces of your favorite vino for a dish like this burrata pasta.
(And by “good” wine, we’re not talking expensive. We use this $10 bottle of Ruffino that I like to drink and it’s delicious in this recipe. Just pick a wine you actually enjoy – not one that tastes like grape juice that was left in the sun too long.)
How To Make The Best Pasta With Burrata And Tomatoes
Now that you know what ingredients go into our burrata pasta, we’ll dive into how to make the recipe. Our burrata pasta is super easy and will be ready in about 20 minutes.
Here’s how to make the best burrata pasta:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta shells and cook according to package directions.
- Heat cooking olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high, then add the tomatoes and garlic. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes until the tomatoes are blistered, shaking the pan occasionally to turn the tomatoes about. Their skins should be soft and wrinkly and their juices will start to release.
- Deglaze the pan: add the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula to release any burned-on bits of garlic, then lower the heat to a simmer. Stir in fresh chopped basil and salt, then simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until the sauce is fragrant.
- Add extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the sauce. Stir to combine and remove the sauce from heat.
- Drain the cooked pasta shells, toss with extra virgin olive oil, then transfer pasta to the skillet with the sauce. Stir to combine.
- Spoon the pasta with sauce and tomatoes onto two plates. Top each plate with a few dollops of burrata cheese, a generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately!
If you start the blistered tomatoes just after putting the pasta in water, everything should be ready at about the same time. The tomatoes and sauce cook quickly so you may feel a little overwhelmed by this recipe, but it’s easy if you have all your ingredients ready to go (this is called mise en place). Just make sure you don’t overcook the tomatoes or simmer the sauce for too long. Otherwise, your tomatoes may become too infused with wine and taste a little overwhelmingly like alcohol. (Yes, we did this on an early iteration of the recipe, and it’s not as tasty as you might think!).
Our burrata pasta with blistered tomatoes makes a delicious date night dinner for two. We suggest pairing it with a side of fresh bread to soak up any leftover sauce and cheese on your plate once the pasta is gone. Oh, and don’t forget the wine!
Try the recipe below next time you’re craving a fresh yet indulgent, upscale pasta. Cheers!
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Burrata Pasta With Blistered Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 16 oz sweet grape tomatoes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- ½ cup dry white wine sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio
- ½ tsp fresh basil finely chopped
- 2 pinches sea salt
- 3½ tsp extra virgin olive oil divided
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar of modena plus extra for drizzling
- 8 oz pasta shells
- 4 oz burrata
- Fresh basil leaves for garnishing
- Fresh bread optional side
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta shells and cook according to package directions.
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add tomatoes and minced garlic, then stir gently to combine. Cook until tomatoes are lightly blistered, about 2 to 3 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
- Add the white wine, lower heat to a simmer and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula to release the garlic.
- Stir in fresh chopped basil and sea salt. Simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add 1/2 tsp of the extra virgin olive oil and 1 tsp balsamic vinegar. Stir gently to combine and remove from heat.
- Drain the cooked pasta and toss with 1 tbsp of the extra virgin olive oil. Then, transfer the cooked pasta to the skillet and stir to combine.
- Spoon cooked pasta with tomatoes and sauce onto two plates. Top each plate with about 2 oz fresh burrata cheese, a generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and fresh basil leaves.
- Serve immediately with a side of fresh bread and a glass of wine.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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Still delicious! Definitely best with quality *sweet* grape tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and balsamic drizzle when served, and bread to sop up any extra sauce.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This dish was so easy to put together & delicious! It’s the perfect dinner for a busy weeknight. I used large pasta shells for this which were great for scooping up the tomatoes and burrata. Will definitely be making this again!
Awesome, so happy you liked this recipe! The large pasta shells are definitely the way to go 🙂
Excellent! Nice to be introduced to burrata cheese! Really enjoyed this pasta dish, which goes great with the warm weather.
So glad you enjoyed it!! It is the perfect warm weather dish 🙂