Fried Burrata Salad with White Balsamic Dressing

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I am completely aware of how uncalled for this Fried Burrata Salad is. Burrata is a decadent treat all on its own. So to roll it in potato starch, egg, and panko before deep-frying it is a, um, little much. But we are in the middle of February and Valentine’s Day adjacent, so I’d say a little indulgence is allowed, advisable even. So rather than question the virtuousness of this dish, let’s just make it, enjoy it, and move on with our lives.

I put together today’s Fried Burrata Salad as a potential Valentine’s Day menu. I suppose fried cheese of any stripe is hard to classify as classy. Burrata is classy, I suppose, but I somehow doubt fried burrata can boast the same status. But I couldn’t care less. This dish, to me, is a love language. Long stem roses and all that noise don’t really capture my imagination. It’s all too choreographed. You don’t have to know anything about a person to buy them a bouquet or a box of chocolates. And the presentation seems stiff, formal, even distant.

Today’s Fried Burrata Salad on the other hand is sweet, messy, and playful – as love should be. And it’s heavy on the cheese and if you’re not with a person who appreciates that, I’m here to tell you, you deserve more. I mean, I will allow for lactose intolerance and/or veganism. But I would hope there is a dairy-free cheese that has captured their heart. This is an odd tangent. Let’s get back to the salad.

Salad is a strange term to use to describe anything that involves a ball of fried burrata but a salad is exactly what this is. Technically, a salad is “a cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables”, so yeah, the word “salad” does not guarantee healthiness. See snickers salad for proof. But this Fried Burrata Salad is actually pretty healthy, the fried cheese notwithstanding. You’re looking at a bed of frisée and radicchio accented with figs, and tangelo segments dressed with pickled shallots in a white balsamic vinaigrette. See? Pretty healthy, right. I mean, yes there is a hulking ball of fried cheese and ribbons of prosciutto but they bring the joy.

Now, this recipe is pretty easy to put together. Really as simple as making a salad. But there are a few things you should be aware of. The first pertains to the shallots. I can’t take credit for this pickled shallot vinaigrette. My wonderful partner, Sunny, makes this dressing every time he manages to wrestle the kitchen back from me. He usually makes it with red or white wine vinegar, but it works very well with white balsamic. And white balsamic and I seem to be having a moment lately.

Basically, what you do is slice your shallots thinly, cover them with the vinegar you want to use in your dressing, and set them aside to pickle while you get on with the rest of the recipe. Then, at the very end, you add your oil to your now pickled shallots and vinegar and any other dressing ingredients you fancy. Whisk it up, and pour it over your salad. And that’s it!

There are two more timing issues you should be aware of before embarking on this recipe and one is a little weird. After pickling the shallots, wash your greens. This obviously isn’t the weird one. I like to wash my greens early on in the recipe, so they have as much time as possible to dry. I’m not a salad spinner person, so I like to let my greens air dry. Even if you’re a salad spinner person, it’s not a bad idea to leave your greens to air dry for a while anyway. It will reduce the amount of time you have to spin them, which is a very good thing.

Now for the weird ask. After you pickle your shallots and dry your greens, you’re going to pop your burrata in the freezer. You’re only going to leave it there for 20-30 minutes, so don’t worry about messing up the texture of the cheese. I like to do this as sort of a failsafe. Burrata, particularly large balls of burrata, is fairly delicate. They can rupture quite easily. So I like to firm them up in the freezer, so I’m less likely to tear the burrata as I move it from starch to egg, to panko, to oil. But having said that, still treat your chilled burrata with care. This is the fussiest part of this recipe.

So that’s pretty much everything you need to know about this Fried Burrata Salad. It’s ooey-gooey, decadent, and yet surprisingly refreshing. And it’s a meal built for two, perfect for Valentine’s Day. But even if you’re not a Valentine’s Day couple, file this recipe away for a fun at-home date night. It’s a wonderful escape on a plate.

Enjoy!