Fresh mozzarella recipes you’ll keep coming back to
With one exception, switching to fresh mozzarella can improve just about everything you turn out of your kitchen. The exception is pizza, although that’s not a total exception, because fresh mozzarella is also, well, exceptional on pizza; you just have to know how to use it.
Fresh mozzarella won’t shred as easily as big-brand blocks of mozz, and tends to hold together, rather than disappear into cheesy goo, when melted. The way around this, of course, is slices of fresh, as you’ve had whenever you’ve eaten a pizza Margherita. But getting back to everything else:
Fresh mozzarella is unmatched in its milky flavor and mildness, and is delightful to eat in hunks but also baked into pastas other things. You have to give it a try.
Whenever you see reference to “caprese,” you know it will contain this unassailable combination of tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil. It’s the antipasto counterpart to the pizza Margherita, and like the pizza, it’s thought to be a nod to the Italian flag with its red, green and white.
While caprese is usually an entirely raw dish, here, Ina concentrates those meaty tomato flavors with a sprinkle of garlic powder and a roast in the oven. The juices, intermingling with those of the mozz, will become the stuff of legend. Crusty bread is a must.
Garlic Cheese Bread Sticks
What’s even better than garlic bread? Garlic bread with an ooey-gooey core. Mozzarella makes for a cheesy blanket that renders this bread filling enough to stand by itself as an app, but it’s also hearty enough to round out a salad or soup dinner.
Sheet Pan Caprese Chicken
A complete meal that comes off a sheet pan is always a big high-five. Here, the roasted chicken breast gains a little richness from the cheesy blanket and a drizzle of balsamic; the burst cherry tomatoes pick up a little essence of chicken, too, for a very delicious sort of hot dressing. Use both to dress fresh arugula and have bread on hand for dunking.
Caprese Tartlets
These little one-biters pack so much flavor into a tiny package. The crusts are from a surprising source: white bread, rolled more compact with a rolling pin, then toasted in muffin cups. They’re filled with softened cream cheese, fresh basil, mozzarella and tomato, drizzled with balsamic and sprinkled with basil. What a party.
White Baked Ziti
When you can’t decide between an American mac and cheese and something a little Italianesque, but not your usual red-sauce baked ziti, here you go. White baked ziti tastes subtle with the naturally nutty notes of Parmesan, and that creaminess that can only come from mozz. You’re welcome—or, prego.
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