Burrata pizza worth making at home

If you haven’t had the chance to try burrata, I would be honored if this recipe became the first occasion. Burrata is a semisoft, white Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. It is like the silkiest, creamiest fresh mozzarella, with a rich molten cream filling as a bonus.

Here it is paired with another Italian culinary triumph, prosciutto. Prosciutto is a ham made from selected legs of pork, slow-cured with sea salt. The end product is sweet and delicious.

Prosciutto aged for 12 months will be less expensive and have a more delicate flavor and softer texture, while more aged prosciuttos will be denser and deeper in taste.

BURRATA AND PROSCIUTTO PIZZA

• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 9 ounces pizza dough or ready-made crust, at room temperature
• Olive oil, as needed
• 8 ounces burrata
• 4 slices paper-thin prosciutto
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place a baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Sprinkle cornmeal on flat cutting board or a pizza peel if you have one, and stretch and pat dough into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. Let it sit for several minutes, then stretch it a bit further, into a 10-inch circle.

Allow it to rest between gentle pulls until it holds its shape and remains about 1/3-inch thick. Brush top lightly with olive oil.

Remove hot baking sheet from oven and swiftly slide dough onto baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, until fairly firm and lightly browned but not cooked through.

Tear the burrata into small pieces and distribute them over the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Return to oven and bake until dough is cooked through and burrata is melted, about five more minutes.

Remove from oven, then drape prosciutto on pizza, allowing burrata to peek through. Sprinkle with oregano, and season with salt and a nice grind of black pepper to finish. Cut in wedges to serve. Serves 2.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving: 744 calories, 40 g fat, 18 g saturated fat, 114 mg cholesterol, 1,802 mg sodium, 58 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, no sugar, 34 g protein.