Burrata and stracciatella aren’t two different cheeses so much as two ways of selling one. Stracciatella is what’s inside a burrata. Buy the whole ball and you get the filling plus a mozzarella shell; buy a tub of stracciatella and you get the filling on its own.
What each one is
Stracciatella is fresh mozzarella curd pulled into shreds and mixed with cream. The name comes from the Italian for rags or shreds. It’s from Puglia, and it can be made with cow’s or buffalo milk. A typical tub’s ingredients are short: BelGioioso lists pasteurized milk and cream, vinegar, enzymes and salt.
Burrata is a pouch of stretched mozzarella filled with stracciatella and tied or pinched shut. In Ken Forkish’s The Elements of Pizza, the Portland cheesemonger Steve Jones describes it being made by hand, with the cream and stringy ribbons of curd put into the middle of a purse of stretched mozzarella, and guesses that it began as a way to use up the end of a mozzarella batch. The shell is mozzarella, and you eat it too.
Burrata comes from Andria, in Puglia. The origin story told by the Consorzio della Burrata di Andria credits a local cheesemaker, Lorenzo Bianchino, in the early twentieth century (checked October 14, 2026). Since 2016, “Burrata di Andria” has been a protected geographical indication in the EU (IGP in Italian), which means it must be made in Puglia to carry the name. In the US it’s also made domestically, by companies such as BelGioioso and Di Stefano.
When it goes on
Both usually go on after the bake. Forkish tops pizzas with burrata right after they come out of the oven, at room temperature, so the heat of the crust only softens the underside of each piece. In the oven, the filling melts into the pizza like any fresh mozzarella, and you lose the contrast of cool, creamy cheese against hot crust that’s the reason to buy it.
That’s a convention, not a rule. Forkish gives mozzarella di bufala a short blast in the oven on one of his pizzas, just enough to warm it, and you can do the same with burrata if you prefer it warm.
Take the cheese out of the fridge a little before the pizza comes out, so it isn’t fridge-cold. The USDA’s limit for perishable food at room temperature is two hours, or one hour above 90°F (32°C).
Burrata or stracciatella?
Burrata is for presentation. A whole ball set on the middle of a hot pizza and torn open at the table is the dramatic version.
Stracciatella is for even coverage. Spooned across the pizza, it puts some cream on every slice, and an open tub can top more than one pizza.
Price. Stracciatella isn’t automatically cheaper than burrata. Compare the unit prices at your store.
How much to use
Forkish uses one ball of burrata on a 12-inch flatbread, peeled into pieces by hand, and leaves gaps so that some bites have cheese and some don’t. BelGioioso’s 8-ounce burrata package holds two 4-ounce (113 g) balls (checked October 14, 2026), so for stracciatella, a similar starting point is about 4 ounces, half an 8-ounce tub, spooned over a 12-inch pizza.
What to pair them with
Both are mild and creamy, so they work best on a pizza that gives them something sharp, salty or sweet to push against. These combinations all appear in Modernist Pizza’s pizzeria visits or in Forkish’s recipes:
- Tomato, Parmesan and basil. At L’Industrie in Brooklyn, Modernist Pizza had a light, round pizza of burrata, tomato sauce, Parmesan and fresh basil. Stracciatella spooned over a margherita does the same job.
- Hot honey. At Apollonia’s in Los Angeles, Modernist Pizza added a dollop of burrata and Mike’s Hot Honey to a pepperoni pizza. More in hot honey pizza.
- Anchovy. One of the pizzas Modernist Pizza tried at Gabriele Bonci’s Chicago shop paired anchovy with burrata.
- Prosciutto and arugula. Forkish drapes prosciutto and dressed arugula over pizzas right after they come out of the oven, the same moment the burrata goes on.
- Pesto. Forkish’s burrata flatbread is a thin crust baked with basil pesto, then topped with burrata and black pepper.
Buying and storing
Unopened, go by the date on the pack. Once it’s open, follow the package. Retailer listings that transcribe BelGioioso’s labels for its stracciatella and burrata say to keep them refrigerated, not to freeze them, and to use them within one to two days of opening for the best flavor (checked October 14, 2026). That’s best-flavor guidance for those packages, not a safety deadline for every brand. Keep burrata in its liquid until you use it. If either one smells sour, it’s past its best.
BelGioioso’s burrata and stracciatella are sold in many US supermarkets. Cheese shops and Italian delis often carry other domestic makers and imports from Puglia.
For the rest of the cheese choices, see low-moisture vs. fresh mozzarella, fresh mozzarella brands for pizza and the best cheese for pizza by style.
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Sources
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016), chapter 4 (burrata, mozzarella di bufala, and the interview with Steve Jones) and chapter 7 (the burrata and pesto flatbread; prosciutto and arugula added after baking).
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, pages 222, 239 and 263: burrata pizzas at L’Industrie, Bonci and Apollonia’s.
- European Commission, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/2103: registration of Burrata di Andria as a protected geographical indication.
- BelGioioso: Burrata 8 Oz product page, two 4-ounce balls (checked October 14, 2026).
- Package guidance as transcribed by retailers: H-E-B’s BelGioioso stracciatella listing (8-ounce tub, storage) and an Uber Eats BelGioioso burrata listing (storage), both checked October 14, 2026.
- Consorzio della Burrata di Andria IGP, “La storia” (checked October 14, 2026): the Lorenzo Bianchino origin story.
- Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, “Stracciatella”: what it is, its name, origin and milk.
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: the two-hour rule for perishable food.