The Trader Joe's Product You Need For A Restaurant-Quality Caprese Salad

If you aspire to make restaurant-quality dishes without the skills of a professional chef and with affordable ingredients, Trader Joe's is the perfect store. And while a caprese salad is simple in its design with only a few ingredients, that only means that each component makes all the difference. Typically, fresh mozzarella is the cheese element here but if you head to Trader Joe's, you'll find a limited-time offering that will elevate your dish from basic to restaurant-level.

At first glance, Trader Joe's Burrata Filling "Stracciatella" may not look like the best replacement for mozzarella slices, since it's essentially the scoopable insides of a ball of burrata. But it brings all the flavors and richness of the cheese that you're used to in classic caprese recipes. Burrata itself is just a variety of mozzarella and it's stuffed with a combination of the shredded fromage and cream. 

The Trader Joe's filling is exactly that — fresh mozzarella shreds soaked in cream. But because it's spoonable, you can easily drop dollops on top of your sliced tomatoes, so you get rich creaminess in each bite of your salad.

If you want to whip up a caprese salad with Trader Joe's Burrata Filling, here's how to do it. Since the tomatoes will be one of two fresh produce ingredients here, make sure to pick good ones. Ideally, this involves heading to the farmers market and grabbing heirlooms, although any full-sized variety will work — like beefsteak tomatoes which are the best variety for slicing and dicing. 

Then arrange your slices on a plate and simply spoon your burrata filling over the center of the dish, so that each piece of tomato gets a little hit of creaminess. Just as you would with any other caprese, you can then top your salad off with fresh basil, olive oil, and a balsamic drizzle.

While this is the classic way to make this dish, we know that this combination of flavors works beyond just the traditional salad and luckily, the burrata filling is adaptable here too. If you're whipping up a grilled cheese or roasted caprese sandwich, this Trader Joe's item is perfect for spreading onto bread slices. This type of cheese also makes for an excellent topping on dishes like sheet-pan caprese chicken gnocchi. But if you're just looking for a restaurant-quality salad, you'll want to head to Trader Joe's to test out this limited-time offering.