18 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.

This is the lazy person’s eggplant Parmesan—and we’re not saying that like it’s a bad thing. Rather the messing up a bunch of pans and spattering oil all over the stove, bread the eggplant and then bake it to crisp it up, then top it with sauce and cheese and bake again in the same sheet pan. You could certainly go old-school and serve it with spaghetti, but we love the simplicity of just this, a salad and a side of bread. Or better yet, garlic bread.

Fresh, refreshing and coming together quick—sounds to us like a recipe for a summer salad. The corn isn’t even cooked here, just cut right off the cob for all its sweet and juicy crunchiness, and is tossed with scallions, grape tomatoes and mozzarella cubes. A bracing vinaigrette keeps you coming back for more.

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.

This combination just wins it when the temperature is just too hot for anything else. Grill a steak, and while that’s happening, assemble a salty-sweet salad that will go with it seamlessly. Leftovers are just as good—a cold steak salad with these flavors is just right.

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.

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.

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.

Guy Fieri knows that if you’re going to go for a chicken parmigiana, you’ve got to go for it. This recipe takes no shortcuts—the chicken is pounded, breaded and fried—but the taste will reward you for your efforts. And a homemade sauce and blanket of fresh mozzarella is a must. Warning: There’s no going back once you’ve had it.

Fresh mozzarella is a common inclusion on an antipasto platter, and it acts as a mild foil to all the salty meats and olives. Here, Valerie Bertinelli combines antipasti classics on skewers, for a cocktail nibble that looks as festive as it is tasty. These carry the spirit of summer, but since they rely on cherry tomatoes, they can be enjoyed even when it’s not tomato season.

We love a grilled cheese made with interesting cheese, but these can sometimes be a challenge because they don’t melt as evenly as American. Enter the mozzarella, carrying the essence of a fancy cheese, here, fontina, but with its unparalleled stretch, and also cutting a bit of the saltiness of the cheese that might be too much with the bacon otherwise. The tart-sweet apples play off everything else for just a perfect bite.

This is a very satisfying dish, suitable for cozy winter weekends or vegetarian dinners. It’s low-maintenance considering the inclusion of eggplant, with chunks roasted with cherry tomatoes, then tossed with pasta and sauce and baked with cubes of fresh mozzarella. That combination of sauce plus cherry tomatoes makes everything taste homemade, even when a jar is involved.

Everything is concentrated here, from the umami quality of the tomatoes, to the sweetness of the peppers (brought out with honey) and the creamy bites of mozzarella carrying the brightness of lemon and basil. This would work beautifully on a plate alongside grilled steak, or topping rounds of baguette for an appetizer. Truly, the possibilities are endless.

Valerie undersells this one… not only is it no-bake, it’s one-pot! Even the noodles simmer right in the sauce, right in the pan that the sausage was cooked in, yet it’s got all the molten cheesy satisfaction of a traditional lasagne. If you start with store-bought or already-prepared marinara, it’s that much quicker.

We’re here for all eggs cooked in sauce, from Italian eggs in Purgatory to Mediterranean shakshuka. This version from Geoffrey Zakarian gives little hidden hits of flavor, from briny olives to meaty salami, and the occasional creamy bite of mozzarella. It’s a meal that works at any time of day, and can be scaled down for a serious but seriously simple feast for one.

Fresh mozz just behaves differently in a bake. It doesn’t blend and disappear into a cheesy background the way industrial mozzarella does, but forms gooey pools here and there—and trust us, that’s a good thing. Though this dish starts with a rotisserie chicken, the herbs and mozzarella make it taste fresh and sophisticated, never heavy.

This dish almost starts out as a joke looking for a punchline: A diner classic sandwich takes a trip to the island of Capri… but just as bacon makes sense almost always, so, it turns out, does pesto. These are just great sandwiches, and will hold up well wrapped and packed for a picnic.