Spaghetti With Burrata and Garlic-Chile Oil
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- 1teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¾cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1large head fennel (about 8 ounces), trimmed, cored and thinly sliced
- 10garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthwise
- ¾teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 1pound whole-wheat spaghetti
- 8ounces burrata cheese
- 1teaspoon flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
- Black pepper
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Crack the fennel seeds with the flat side of a large knife or the backside of a heavy skillet. Heat the oil, sliced fennel, garlic, fennel seeds and red-pepper flakes in a large skillet over low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic and fennel are softened and the oil is deeply flavored, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and return pasta to pot. Reserve a few tablespoons of the seasoned oil and fennel mixture, then add the rest to the pot with the pasta and toss to coat.
- Step 3
Divide the pasta and burrata among four shallow bowls. Spoon the remaining seasoned oil and fennel mixture over the top and season with flaky salt and black pepper to taste.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Deceptively simple but outrageously good. I inadvertently left the oil closer to 20 minutes on low. The fennel was even sweeter than I imagined and the oil itself had a fantastic perfume when it came time to dress the pasta. This is a keeper!
you could use maybe 6 oz mozzarella and 2 oz heavy cream to approximate burrata. By the time it is melted by the hot pasta, I don't think you will be able to tell the difference.
California Olive Ranch is always a good baseline...
>> Take the Burrata out of the fridge at least an hour before you start making this, so that it warms up. << If you don't, the shock difference between the cold cheese and the hot pasta won't be appealing. Also, allowing time for the Burrata to warm up permits all that yummy creamy interior to become liquid, spilling onto the hot pasta and virtually becoming part of the sauce .. that's decadence. Be sure to have a bit of fresh baguette to mop the plate after the pasta is gone. :)
Made exactly as written, but added fennel pollen at the end before serving. Don’t hate me! I know it’s expensive but simple dishes like this lets it really shine
A generous dollop of ricotta cheese would also be a lovely substitute, as it's also rich and creamy!
I cut one regular size burrata into quarters. Let the insides gush out, tossed and served each person with one of the quarters. But next time I think I will use the mini-size burrata and give one to each person. The insides gushing out is half the fun.
Look for first cold press. With expiration date and low acidity, 0.5% or below. Spain, Croatia, Greece and, nowadays, California.
Given that price is not always the most effective yard stick, could your writers be more specific when suggesting the type of olive oil? "Good quality" typically seems more like a value judgement than help for novice cooks. Otherwise, your recipes are inspiring. Thanks.
A lot of people think that they dislike fennel when they've not used it in the ways of Italian cookery. I'd say, "Try it, you'll like it". I make a fennel and ground meat with cream pasta dish that wins rave reviews whenever I make it. I'm going to make this dish as recommended but I might add an onion as well as the head of fennel. Fennel develops so much sweetness in the cooking process and loses a lot of its bitter, licorice quality
Burrata is much richer than mozzarella, so you might want to mix some cream cheese with your mozzarella to make up for that.
So true, price is often very misleading. Personally (my own opinion, not the opinion of the NYT) I like California Olive Ranch or Thrive market's organic cold-press olive oil.
Its unclear to me how you would divide the burrata among the bowls of pasta. As I live in Puglia, the home of burrata, I have it readily available in various forms... Could you put an individual one in the center of each? Or would you cut a larger one into portions? I might be apt to either use an individual one in a "nest" or even coot for cuore di burrata.
You can skip it--it adds a subtle sweetness but you can do shallot or yellow onion instead!
Delicious exactly as written. On my electric stove, which I hate, it took considerably longer for the fennel and garlic to soften, but what a lot of flavor!
This is a fennel lovers dish. It presents beautifully.
It’s good. Unfortunately I didn’t have fennel but used onions. Had burrata, but not quite about. Added mascarpone — this cooled it down a bit. Would do something to solve that problem next time.
Add a strip or two of a lemon zest to the oil mixture. Dash of parsley to finish.
Made this often, but after a hiatus made for Lent as a treat for one (me)…. 2oz whole wheat spaghetti, 1 med. fennel bulb, tbsp minced garlic, 1 heaping teaspoon of fennel seeds (crushed), 1 heaping teaspoon Aleppo chili flakes, just shy of 1/4c good EVOO… then 1 4oz būf burrata (out an hr for room temp), Maldon salt, chopped fronds to finish. Cook fennel, etc. for 25 min. low and slow for depth of flavor and sweetness. Gastronomic orgasm of a flavor bomb, so worth the 40 min. time to make.
I think you could easily omit the butter and cut the oil from 1/3 to 1/4 cup without sacrificing any of the taste or mouth feel. It would also cut 300 calories from the recipe.
Subbed fennel for white onion- worked well but came across as a basic pasta dish. Flavor pairing was very nice and I liked the recommendation to cut the garlic in long flat slices. Would love to try this recipe with fennel seeds/fennel in the future! Definitely warm the burrata to room temp, it makes the entire dish much colder.
Elegant, simple, with a striking flavor profile. Love this recipe.
Elegant, simple, with a striking flavor profile. Love this recipe.
Elegant, simple, with a striking flavor profile. Love this recipe!!!
Awesome!
I added poached chicken and pancetta to heft it up a bit and a few cherry tomatoes, mainly for color presentation. I agree that dividing the burrata into individual bowls would be fun but I just mixed it in with the pasta before serving. Otherwise I followed the recipe. It was wonderful.
Absolutely divine. Restaurant quality recipe, a keeper for sure. I added 1/4-1/2 cup pasta water, plus Parmesan cheese at the end. Mixed some of the burrata cheese into the pasta and on top at the end.
I have made this many, many times. I make it with 2 leeks and a tsp of fennel seed. (Chefs kiss).
First of all, my market was out of fennel, so I used an onion instead, so I didn't actually make this recipe. And maybe the fennel would have made all the difference. But there just wasn't enough burrata! I added the end of a goat-cheese log after we'd all complained about our initial helping, and that upped the creaminess factor and made the whole thing more satisfying. So, a sulky and disappointed B from me. It wasn't bad, just not the wow I was expecting.
I doubled everything except the pasta and burrata, eyeballed the spices and olive oil and that made it perfectly balanced. I cooked the fennel longer to make it more caramelized. I think the regular measures of the ingredients wouldn’t be enough flavor. 5/5 recipe
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