Marinated Tomatoes with Burrata and Garlic Crostini

Marinated Tomatoes with Burrata Cheese is like a caprese salad on steroids – haha!  Peak of the season tomatoes marinated in balsamic vinegar, oil, basil, and a touch of sugar… served with creamy burrata on a garlic crostini.  If you’re a fan of tomatoes, you’re going to LOVE this recipe!  Disclaimer:  I would never choose to eat a plain tomato, but eat this stuff by the platefuls.  

Here’s how it’s made!

Marinated Tomatoes

I used The Pioneer Woman’s marinated tomatoes as a starting poing for this recipe by combining some oil with balsamic vinegar, fresh spices, garlic, and a little sugar. Don’t bother using expensive extra virgin olive oil for this recipe. There is so much flavor already, regular canola or vegetable oil work great. Save the higher quality oil for brushing on the crostini later on.

Tomatoes

Any summer tomatoes are going to work well in this recipe. I used one pound of cherry tomatoes in this batch because it’s what looked best in my grocery store this week (and I’m a sucker for all of the pretty colors). When making this recipe in the middle of the winter, I always go with cherry tomatoes though, because their quality is good year round.

Whichever tomatoes you use, you will want to cut them into bite sized pieces. With these cherry tomatoes, I cut the smaller tomatoes in half and and the largers ones into quarters, or even sixths if they were very large. Just go ahead and add the diced tomatoes to the marinade and set aside.

Look how amazing it all looks when it comes together! So much flavor!!

Burrata

Have you had a chance to try Burrata yet?

It’s basically a fresh mozzarella cheese filled with soft, creamy cheese. It’s widely available in grocery stores, usually with the specialty cheeses in the deli area. If you can’t get your hands on any, fresh mozarella or mozarella balls work great with this recipe too!

An important thing to remember when serving burrata is to make sure it sits out for about an hour before serving so it reaches room temperature. You want all of the soft, creamy filling to ooze out and combine with the marinated tomatoes. If you serve it straight from the frige, it will be more like a solid block of cheese. Look how amazing it is when the marinade from the tomatoes mixes with the filling of the burrata….so good!

And we haven’t even talked yet about how amazing this tastes when smeared on crostini!

Crostini

Making Crostini is really straight forward. Slice a baguette, brush both sides with some good quality olive oil, and bake in a 425 oven for about 5 minutes until slightly crispy. You don’t want the bread crunchy like a crouton, but you will want it sturdy enough to withstand the juices from the tomatoes and marinade.

And here’s a secret to making crostini even more amazing! After removing from the oven, immediately rub with half of a garlic clove over the surface of each piece of toast. This simple step will give your crostini the most amazing garlic flavor.

After you have rubbed each toast with the garlic, sprinkle with sea salt and serve with the marinated tomatoes and burrata!

Enjoy, friends! This one is a keeper!!

Marinated Tomatoes with Burrata and Garlic Crostini

For Marinated Tomatoes:

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon teaspoon table salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
9 whole basil Leaves, cut chiffonade
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces (I cut cherry tomatoes in half if small, and into quarters if larger)

Burrata:

Burrata, at room temperature (if you can’t find burrata in your grocery story, fresh mozzarella or mozzarella balls also work well)

Crostini:

1 whole baguette, sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and cut in half lengthwise

Directions

For the Marinated Tomatoes:

Combine the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, spices, and garlic in a large bowl. Whisk to combine, then add tomatoes. I like to serve these tomatoes within 2 hours of marinating for best results, but also enjoy refrigerated leftovers the next day. The tomatoes will give off more liquid while they sit, so be prepared for a little more liquid the next day. It’s still delicious!

For the Burrata:

Let the burrata reach room temperature before serving (usually this takes about one hour of sitting out on the counter). This will enable to the center to become soft and creamy. Place burrata and tomatoes on a tray together and serve immediately.

For the Crostini:

Brush both sides of the baguette slices with olive oil. Bake at 425 F for about 5 minutes. You don’t want the toasts crunchy like a crouton, but do want them to harder a little so they can absorb the liquid from the marinade.

Immediately after removing from the oven, rub half of a garlic clove over the surface of the crostini (see picture above) and sprinkle with sea salt.

Smear some burrata over the surface of the toast and spoon some tomatoes and juice over the top. Serve immediately!!