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Eartha L. Goodwin Photography
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Eartha L. Goodwin Photography
Chef Frank Hill has cooked a $62 prime filet mignon and a $46 Bronzino sea bass at fine dining restaurants, but he wanted his high-quality food to reach the masses at affordable prices. So this summer he opened Burrata Italian Kitchen as a carryout-only spot in Canton with generous portions for mostly under $20.
“You’re getting higher-end dining in a box,” says the executive chef and co-owner. “It’s all made in house. We have our own flavor profiles.”
Hill, who has Italian heritage, wants the food to evoke the comforting feel of Sunday dinners. He took some inspiration from his mom, who was in catering and who he began cooking beside at 6 years old. Hill tweaked her pasta salad recipe that uses cheese tortellini. His version has Italian meats, cheeses, black olives, giardiniera pickled vegetables and house-made Italian dressing. The menu has fresh pizzas and pastas with build-your-own options, as well as sandwiches and salads. The distinct taste in items like pizzas and sandwiches partly comes from a top-secret oregano-based house seasoning.
“It’s familiar to Italian seasoning but has a little more flavor,” he says.
The house seasoning also finishes the lasagna ($12) that has the house red sauce. That’s made with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh garlic, onion, basil and a secret ingredient for a sauce that’s a tad sweeter without adding sugar and has less acidity. The time-consuming lasagna consists of five layers of fresh lasagna sheets, red sauce, whipped New York-style ricotta with seasonings and herbs, mozzarella and provolone. The lasagna is so popular that they make pans upon pans, and some people have said it’s the best they ever had.
It takes a few hours to make gnocchi by hand, ricing the potatoes and rolling out and forming the dough. A baked gnocchi dish ($14) comes with red sauce and handmade meatballs, which Hill crafts with a beef and pork blend, fresh herbs, and instead of breadcrumbs, he uses the old-school Italian method of adding Italian bread soaked in cream for a denser, moister texture.
“A lady said she’s very picky about her gnocchi. She was glad she chose it,” he says. “They’re perfect little pillows.”
While most menu items are Italian classics, you will be rewarded if you try unfamiliar dishes with expert culinary touches like a wedgie, which is a pizza shop specialty Hill discovered while in culinary school in Pittsburgh. Hill got hooked on them and has a steak wedgie ($12) about once a week. To make that one, he stuffs fresh pizza dough with smoked provolone and sliced Italian beef that’s dipped in rosemary au jus and slowly braised. Hill then folds it over and bakes it. When it comes out, Hill brushes it with a house-made garlic oil and finishes it with house seasoning. He adds shredded lettuce, Roma tomatoes, sliced onions and mayo and cuts it into triangles for a refined casual bite.
“The flavor profile, Italian seasoning, the tender beef, the melted cheese and the dough,” he says, “it’s heavenly.”
3102 Tuscarawas St. W, Canton, go4burrata.com
