Tender broccolini salad served with creamy burrate cheese and a vinegar dress – the perfect summer salad for your next barbecue!

Broccolini Salad with Burrata Cheese

I’m a burrata cheese fanatic. I fell in love with burrata during a trip to San Francisco where it was served with just a little olive oil and rock salt, at Perbacco in the Financial District. What could be better than slicing into a jiggly ball of mozzarella, giving way to a creamy, buttery center, casually sprinkled with rock salt for a crunch and burst of saltiness.

There was a moment of silence as Ben and I took our first bite, followed by our familiar exchange of wide eyes whenever we discover something great. If my brain could’ve exploded from the goodness of this cheese, it would’ve turned into fireworks.

Not all burrata is equal, this experience was unforgettable because Perbacco’s burrata is home made. But it converted me into a burrata lover and I’ve since either bought it or ordered it from restaurants on several occasions.

So when I was flipping through Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook pages and saw a broccolini salad with burrata cheese recipe, deciding to make it was a no brainer. Simple and also very easy to make, the flavor profile was ideal to serve with a simple spaghetti with roasted tomatoes. 

The broccolini salad came out looking gorgeous and tasting like a beautiful trip to the Mediterranean coast. The dressing is made with a mix of sherry and red wine vinegar. Thomas Keller uses sherry vinegar in many of his recipes and for a good reason; it’s more complex than red wine vinegar yet lighter than balsamic, sort of right smack in between the two. If you can’t find any though, it’s no big deal, just use a little balsamic or stick with all red wine vinegar with a bit more salt.

This broccolini salad is a perfect paring for summer dishes like gazpacho, zucchini cakes and simple pastas.

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