Burrata with String Beans

S3 E9: The Telltale Moozadell

The Sopranos, 1999.

The episode where A.J. proves he’s inherited at least a portion of his father’s knack for chaos by breaking into the high school pool and leaving behind a pizza as incriminating as DNA.

Carmela gets a sapphire the size of Staten Island (Tony’s way of saying “don’t ask too many questions”), Gloria and Tony turn the zoo into their personal lovers’ lane, and Jackie Jr. somehow convinces everyone, temporarily, that he’s a wholesome boyfriend.

But the moment that steals the show is Artie Bucco, doomed patron saint of trying too hard. He leans over a table and insists on serving burrata with spring beans and a crack of black pepper. “It’s more subtle than mozzarella, with a nutty flavor,” he beams, as if the combination of string beans and imported cheese might hold his crumbling life together. His guests chew politely, visibly yearning for the hot antipasto. Artie mistakes their discomfort for sophistication—a tragicomic bit that lands somewhere between culinary innovation and social death.

This is where The Sopranos excels: a man grasping at relevance, clinging to fine cheese while his marriage collapses and Tony edges him further into irrelevance. Burrata with beans is less a dish than a metaphor—smooth cream against the crunch of reality, with pepper stinging just enough to remind you that dignity can be a fragile thing.

Make it! Green Beans with Burrata from Just a Little Bit of Bacon