BURRATA CHEESE HAS been described as “mozzarella’s sexier cousin,” says Zach Berg of Mongers’ Provisions.

It’s a key ingredient in Italian cooking. With a soft, creamy consistency, it’s often served with tomato, olive oil and basil. It’s commonly paired with a crisp or hearty bread and frequently served as part of a crostini or bruschetta. Long a staple of high-end Italian restaurants, where it is sometimes made in-house, it has become much more common in the last few decades.

Arend Elston, owner of Sanilac Creamery, says his company makes burrata cheese during mid-to-late summer, when everyone wants to serve it with fresh Michigan tomatoes. The 50 or so packages of burrata produced each week are eagerly snapped up at their retail shop in Ann Arbor.

The ingredients and steps to make burrata sound simple enough: Make a shell out of fresh mozzarella, fill it with shredded mozzarella and heavy cream, tie it off in a little bag and let it sit in a refrigerator until it transforms and softens into a lush, spreadable consistency.

As with many cooking techniques, however, the devil is in the details. Sanilac Creamery uses a brining technique to make a shelf-stable burrata that stays fresh for two weeks. It took some experimentation for them to come up with the perfect recipe.

“If you don’t get it right, you end up with your cheese dissolving,” says Elston.

Burrata cheese is always on the menu at San Morello, Detroit’s Southern Italian– and Sicilian-inspired restaurant at the Shinola Hotel. Its burrata offerings pictured above change seasonally. A recent pairing with burrata included a jammy fig, spicy coppa, hazelnuts and chianti vinegar.

“Burrata’s creaminess lends itself well to flavorful ingredients,” says Anna Davenport of Shinola Hotel. The burrata is sourced from Maplebrook Farm in Vermont.

“It’s a great idea to buy domestic when you want burrata,” says Berg. “It has such a short shelf life. You don’t want burrata imported from Italy; you want fresh, amazing burrata.”

Sharon Morton is a feature and business writer working in Metro Detroit.