The Best Thing Right Now...

Pure white might not be the most exciting color. But after looking at the milky appearance of a piece of burrata cheese, your heart might tremble anyway. Burrata, a cow's milk cheese from the Puglia region of Italy, looks like a regular ball of mozzarella on the outside, but that outside layer is just a thin sheet of cheese tied up like a bag. Floating inside the bag are pieces of chopped mozzarella mixed with cream. When the ball is sliced in half, the sheet acts as a bowl for the chopped pieces. Burrata tears and tastes like mozzarella, only fresher and lighter. According to Giancarlo Quadalti, chef/owner of Teodora Ristorante (which serves burrata as an appetizer with tomatoes and basil), the cheese is best eaten right at its birth. When sold in Italy, it is packed with bay leaves. American customs prohibit the importation of that combination, but no matter: A slice of burrata with a dab of olive oil and some basil is a magic combination.

Burrata is served as an appetizer for $15 at Teodora Ristorante, 141 E. 51st St., between Lexington and Third avenues, 212-826-7101. Buonitalia Imports at the Chelsea Market (75 Ninth Ave., between 15th and 16th streets, 212-633-9090) sells burrata for $12.95 a pound.