Our burrata pizza recipe offers the quickest and easiest way to elevate a humble Margherita pizza with creamy burrata cheese, prosciutto di Parma, rucola, cherry tomatoes, and a good quality extra virgin olive oil, using a store-bought pizza or pizza base, although you could certainly use a homemade pizza base. It’s perfect for spontaneous get-togethers, unexpected visitors, casual gatherings, and lazy holidays.
My burrata pizza recipe makes a gourmet pizza topped with creamy burrata, prosciutto, rucola, and cherry tomatoes. It’s your back-up plan if you don’t have enough food to feed a crowd over the holidays, you spontaneously decide to host a get-together, friends drop by unexpectedly and stay for dinner, or you just want to elevate that store-bought pizza you have in the freezer.
At home in Siem Reap, Terence is the pizzaiolo, making homemade pizzas from scratch from the sourdough he bakes. (I take on spring roll– and dumpling-making duties.) But here in Australia, where I’m busy taking care of my elderly mum, I have to look for healthy short-cuts wherever I can. I can’t make pelmeni and vareniki every day, although that’s what I’ll be doing next week for our Russian-Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas feast.
We never get home delivery or takeaway, as I like to know exactly what goes into my food, and much prefer to make healthier fast food at home. So I’ve got into the habit of keeping a store-bought pizza base or simple Margherita pizza in the freezer, which I’ll then elevate with additional toppings, because I try to make every meal a bit special these days. This is my favourite way of doing that.
But before I tell you all about our recipe for burrata pizza with prosciutto, rucola and cherry tomatoes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as a cookbook for culinary travellers or classic cookbook for serious cooks.
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Burrata Pizza Recipe with Prosciutto, Rucola and Cherry Tomatoes
This recipe for a burrata pizza topped with creamy burrata cheese, prosciutto di Parma, rucola, and cherry tomatoes is not only the result of looking for healthy-ish shortcuts for home-cooked dishes, as I’m just so busy. This burrata pizza recipe is also the result of cravings for the food I miss from our home in Southeast Asia.
That doesn’t only mean the food of Cambodia, our home since 2013, or the food of Vietnam or Thailand, where we lived before moving to Siem Reap. I long for a meal made by my husband Terence, who I’m desperately missing, who has delighted me, nourished me, and sustained me with his delicious food for three decades now.
And I have been missing Southeast Asian food, so much that I occasionally cook two dishes for dinner, as mum doesn’t eat spicy food — or I make dishes that can be served without spice for mum, and then spiced up for me, which I did with the next recipe I’m sharing, for moules marinière. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’ve also been having cravings for dishes from some of our favourite restaurants in Southeast Asia. This burrata pizza recipe was inspired by my favourite pizza at Japanese pizza restaurant chain, Pizza 4P’s, a ‘Burrata Parma Ham’ pizza. Although of course their pizzas are made from scratch, right in front of you, at their restaurants.
I’ve written about Pizza 4P’s here before. Started by Yosuke Masuko and Sanae Takasugi, a lovely Japanese expat couple in Saigon with a mission to make people happy and make the world a better place, Pizza 4P’s not only has an uplifting and heart-warming back story, but a serious sustainability mission, with zero-waste goals, a commitment to using local organic produce and collaborating with local growers and local producers.
But of course everything is made from scratch at Pizza 4P’s. They even make their own cheese, collaborate with local cheesemakers, and train locals to make cheese, depending on where they are — because their business has grown from that one restaurant in Saigon, to a handful of eateries in Vietnam (my favourites are actually in Hanoi) to outlets in Cambodia, Japan, India, and Indonesia. So they also make their burrata.
And you could also make your pizza from scratch, using one of Terence’s pizza recipes, such as his no-knead sourdough pizza or his pizza made in a Dutch Oven, but, as I said, I created this burrata pizza recipe with the intention of creating something special that was quick and easy from store-bought ingredients, so let me share a few tips to doing just that.
Tips to Making this Recipe for Burrata Pizza with Prosciutto, Rucola and Cherry Tomatoes
I only have a few tips to making this our burrata pizza recipe with prosciutto, rucola and cherry tomatoes, as it’s a breeze to make and comes together quickly.
Ingredients
To make this burrata pizza recipe, you’ll need to stock your freezer with store-bought Margherita pizzas, or pizza bases, and your fridge with a tub of creamy burrata (or buffalo mozzarella), packs of prosciutto di Parma (or jamon Serrano), rucola (rocket, arugula) and cherry tomatoes, and have a bottle of good quality extra virgin olive oil in the pantry.
Pizza
I’ve been testing this burrata pizza recipe with a number of store-bought pizzas and store-bought pizza bases in recent months, and a simple frozen Margherita pizza works best.
I have a couple of favourite supermarket pizza brands for readers in Australia. The best is a wood-fired, 24 hour-rested Margherita pizza from Destination Italy, an Australian-owned company, made in Meduno, Italy, from all natural ingredients. Bonus: it’s low sodium and low in calories.
The instructions recommend cooking it at 200°C (392°F) in a standard oven or 180°C (356°F) in a fan forced oven for 11-14 minutes. I’ve found it takes around 15 minutes to cook through in my Mum’s fan forced oven. But while their packaging is compostable, if you’re concerned about air miles…
I also like the Coles Margherita Pizza, a stone baked pizza base made in Australia from Australian wheat and (mostly) Australian ingredients. It can be cooked from frozen, but I’ve found it better if thawed first in the fridge. It takes just 12 minutes to cook through in a fan forced oven on 210°C (410°F)
Prosciutto di Parma
If you’ve got a good Italian deli nearby, buy the best quality Prosciutto di Parma you can find. If not, I’ve found one of the best of the most affordable Prosciutto di Parma supermarket brands here in Australia to be the Giuseppe Citterio Spa Prosciutto di Parma (100g), which is cured from pork and salt and is from Parma in Italy. Not all Italian ‘prosciutto di Parma’ is from Parma when it comes to supermarket brands.
That product claims to be cured using centuries-old traditions and all natural ingredients, and no additives, and no preservatives, which is heartening, especially when there are so many charcuterie products on supermarket shelves that are made with preservatives other than salt.
We’ve also enjoyed an even more affordable option, a certified Spanish Serrano Ham (jamon Serrano) from ALDI, from Spain, sold in 80g packs, which claims to have been dry cured for 12 months. I found Aldi’s Jamon Serrano to be better tasting than their Prosciutto, but it’s made from pork, salt and a preservative (252).
Step-By-Step Process
Our recipe for burrata pizza with prosciutto, rucola and cherry tomatoes is so easy, it almost doesn’t need a recipe, but here’s a super quick outline of the process. Or you can scroll directly down to the recipe.
Pre-heat the oven according to the store-bought pizza box instructions, transfer the pizza onto a lightly-greased pizza tray, slide the pizza into the middle shelf of the oven, and cook according to the directions.
Make sure to take the burrata out of the fridge so that it’s at room temperature by the time you need it and is therefore creamier.
Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, slide them into a mixing bowl, add the rucola and extra virgin olive oil, and toss to combine. Serve any leftover salad on the table.
When the pizza is cooked, pull the tray out of the oven and slide the pizza onto a serving plate.
Tip the cherry tomatoes and rucola onto the pizza and spread out to evenly distribute across the pizza.
Curl or scrunch up each piece of prosciutto and distribute around the pizza so that there’ll be a piece per slice of pizza.
Place the piece of burrata at the centre of the pizza, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the burrata, and grind on some cracked black better, and serve.
At the table, use two tablespoon to pull the burrata apart, from the top centre of the cheese, separating it into four pieces, and flattening it a little, so the creamy cheese oozes out, and drizzle on a little more extra virgin olive oil.
Burrata Pizza Recipe with Prosciutto, Rucola and Cherry Tomatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pizza - store-bought Margherita pizza, or pizza base, or home made pizza (see our tips and notes for recipe)
- 100 g cherry tomatoes
- 60 g rucola - rocket or baby rocket in Australia, NZ and UK; arugula in the USA
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - divided, more if needed, best quality you can afford
- 100 g prosciutto di Parma
- 125 g burrata - or fresh buffalo mozzarella
- Cracked black pepper for grinding
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven according to the store-bought pizza box instructions, transfer the pizza onto a lightly-greased pizza tray, slide the pizza into the middle shelf of the oven, and cook according to the directions.
- Take the burrata out of the fridge so that it’s at room temperature by the time you need it and is therefore creamier.
- Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, slide them into a mixing bowl, add the rucola and extra virgin olive oil, and toss to combine. Serve any leftover salad on the table.
- When the pizza is cooked, pull the tray out of the oven and slide the pizza onto a serving plate.
- Tip the cherry tomatoes and rucola onto the pizza and spread out to evenly distribute across the pizza.
- Curl or scrunch up each piece of prosciutto and distribute around the pizza so that there’ll be a piece per slice of pizza.
- Place the piece of burrata at the centre of the pizza, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the burrata, and grind on some cracked black better, and serve.
- At the table, use two tablespoon to pull the burrata apart, from the top centre of the cheese, separating it into four pieces, and flattening it a little, so the creamy cheese oozes out, drizzle on a little more extra virgin olive oil, and use a pizza wheel to slice the pizza.
Notes
- a store-bought Margherita pizza is recommended; if you use a store-bought pizza or make your own pizza (we have a homemade sourdough pizza recipe here) you'll need to slather the base with an Italian tomato sauce (or store-bought passata), grated fresh mozzarella or thin mozzarella slices, and fresh basil leaves.
Please do let us know if you make this burrata pizza recipe with prosciutto, rucola and cherry tomatoes as we’d love to know how it turns out for you. And please share your own recipe tweaks.
