Stracciatella with Courgette, Pistachio, Basil & Honey
Stracciatella means ‘little rags’ and is a mixture of fresh mozzarella curds and double cream. It is a mixture that is usually encased inside of a mozzarella casing to make a burrata. Creamy, silky and juicy.
Stracciatella makes a lovely accompaniment for dipping bread into. In this recipe we are pairing the soft fresh cheese with courgette cooked in two different ways, some braised until sweet, and the other lemony and crunchy, as well as toasted pistachios, basil, and honey.
Juicy, crunchy, toasty, nutty, fragrant, sweet, sour, creamy, fresh. Yum.
Ingredients (Serves 4 as a dippy salad)
250g Stracciatella (or use a ripped burrata if you cannot buy stracciatella)
2 Courgettes, small
2 cloves Garlic
½ Lemon, juiced
40g Pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
25ml Runny honey
10g Basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Cut one of the courgettes on the diagonal into 5mm slices. Finely chop the garlic. Heat up a decent amount of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and cook the courgettes until well browned on each side. Seasoning with salt as you go. Add the garlic at the end and heat until the garlic is just cooked. Remove onto a plate with all the juices.
Use a vegetable peeler to peel strips of courgette working around the courgette until you get to the centre. Discard the centre. You are making long thin tagliatelle-like noodles.
Two minutes before you want to serve, dress the courgette noodles in the lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil and some salt. Mix well to make sure that they are well coated and leave them for the dressing to lightly “cook” the noodles.
Place the stracciatella spread widely over a plate and place the braised courgettes over. Make the courgette noodles into a nest and place in the middle of the plate. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachio, drizzle over the honey and finish with freshly chopped basil. Make sure all of the oily juices from the courgettes get on there too.
