Sometimes a dish that isn’t what you expected turns out to be exactly what you needed.

This spring, I was in Nashville for a work trip and had the pleasure of dining at Stateside Kitchen with a few colleagues. After being away for several days, I was craving a green salad and was pleased to see a beet salad on the menu. I naturally assumed there would be greens involved.

There were not.

What arrived instead was a beautiful plate of roasted beets nestled on a bed of stracciatella, topped with pistachios, basil and a lemon-honey vinaigrette. Stracciatella is the luxuriously creamy filling found inside burrata, and it made the perfect base for the earthy beets. I added shrimp on the side for a little protein and thoroughly enjoyed every bite. My missing greens were quickly forgotten.

Naturally, I returned home determined to recreate it. I found that Wegmans carries stracciatella under its Italian Classics line, labeled ‘Burrata Filling (Stracciatella)’ made for them by BelGioioso and have also spotted it at a local Acme, although availability varies by store. It is worth seeking out, especially if you enjoyed my earlier Stracciatella with Pesto recipe.

For my version, I used tender baby beets from Bryn Clovis Farm, our CSA in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Roasting beets is wonderfully simple—trim the tops and bottoms, scrub them clean, wrap them in aluminum foil and roast until tender. Once cool enough to handle, the skins slip right off.

Rather than make a lemon vinaigrette, I kept the finishing touches simple. I drizzled the beets and stracciatella with good olive oil and a bit of wildflower honey from my Uncle John F (a local beekeeper has bees on his property). A sprinkle of pistachios added crunch, and grilled shrimp made it a complete meal.

The result was creamy, earthy, sweet and just a little unexpected—which is often where the best discoveries begin.

Side note… I had lunch earlier this week with my friend, Julie P, at Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar. She had a similar dish but instead of using stracciatella, the beets were served atop creamy, whipped plain yogurt.

Roasted Beets and Stracciatella

Creamy, earthy and elegant

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Course Salad

Servings 4

Ingredients

8 baby beets
8 ounces stracciatella
2 tablespoons pistachios chopped
Drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil
Drizzle of honey
4 basil leaves torn or cut chiffonade-style
Sprinkle of flaky sea salt such as Maldon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Clean beets and cut off tops and bottoms. You do not need to peel them. Depending on the size of beets, cut them in half or quarters. You want the pieces to be roughly the same size. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Place beets on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 to 60 minutes until they’re fork-tender.
When cool, peel skin off beets (you may want to wear rubber gloves as the juice stains your hands). Slice into quarters. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until needed. Beets can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.
Remove stracciatella (and beets, if prepared in advance) from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving to take the chill off.
Divide stracciatella between four salad plates and spread in the center of each plate.
Divide beet wedges between the plates and place on top of the stracciatella.
Drizzle with olive oil and honey.
Sprinkle basil and flaky sea salt.
Serve immediately.