🧀 Burrata di Andria

Burrata di Andria is an Italian cheese with a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), made from cow's milk by adding cream to stretched curd (registered on 27 October 2015, file PGI-IT-01393). The outer layer is made entirely of pasta filata and encloses a filling of cream mixed with pasta filata shredded by hand, called stracciatella.

How it is made. The milk may be raw or pasteurised. The cream comes from centrifuged milk or fresh whey and is pasteurised; fresh pasteurised cream, UHT cream or a mix of the two may be used. All operations, from the raw materials to the finished cheese, must take place in the production area, and the cheese must be packaged at the dairy there, because it is fresh and deteriorates quickly.

Look and taste. The cheese is milk-white, round and shaped like a sack closed by hand at the top into a bunched topknot. The casing is at least about 2 mm thick; the filling is a shredded, spongy, cream-soaked mass and cream spills out when it is cut. The aroma is of fresh or cooked milk, butter and cream. Moisture is 50% to 70%, and weight 100 g to 1 kg. It may be sold in bags, wrapped in green paper, or in trays, jars or liquid, and must be kept at 4 °C ± 2.

Area. The whole region of Apulia.

History. According to the specification and oral tradition, burrata was invented by Lorenzo Bianchino on an estate in the first decades of the twentieth century, to use cream and scraps of pasta filata; an early reference appears in the Touring Club guide of 1931.

Labelling. The label shows Burrata di Andria in clear lettering followed by Protected Geographical Indication or PGI, plus the PGI logo.

Why it matters to you. The PGI name means the cheese was made and packaged in Apulia to this specification.