Take Fresh Mozzarella Up A Notch With A Zesty Marinade

When marinating cheeses, feta is born for (and born in) a marinade, so much so that leftover feta brine is great to save for super flavorful tofu. And marinated goat cheese is a must-have on your next cheese board. But when considering marinated cheese for your next amazing spread, don't forget the mozzarella. Low fat, hardened mozzarella works beautifully with a marinade because its texture and low-salt content will take on the flavor of any marinade — oil, herbs, and spices. But you don't have to have a firm mozz for your next marinade. Fresh mozzarella works beautifully too, and has some added benefits.

When we talk about "regular" or firm mozzarella, it's really just fresh mozzarella that has been aged longer and has more bacterial culture added. This is why firm or aged mozzarella melts better on a pizza — it has a lower moisture content. But while fresh mozzarella may turn soupy or runny when melted, it can take on more flavor when kept cold in a marinade. The thin membrane of fresh mozzarella in balls or the less-solid flesh of sliced fresh mozzarella, while saltier than firm, allows flavors to penetrate and intermingle with the salty, milky goodness of the cheese. The result is a solidarity of flavors that's less coated with herbs and spices and more a fully-realized new cheese.

You can use your basic herbs and olive oil mix with fresh mozzarella. Just be sure that you're using relatively firm fresh mozz balls or slicing a large mozzarella ball or log that doesn't pour out when you slice it. While traditional fresh buffalo mozzarella is delicious and perfect for sopping up bread or mixing into pasta, it could just turn into a milky soup in a marinade.

When you marinate your fresh mozzarella, you'll have a quicker caprese salad. The beauty of the caprese is in the fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. It's not that the herbs are an afterthought, but they can be tough to keep fresh in the fridge. With marinated mozzarella, you can remove that issue altogether. In the marinade, dried herbs can taste just as fresh and satisfying as leaves pulled off the stem. On a sandwich, the extra oil from the marinade adds some much-needed moisture, whether cold or hot-pressed. Firm marinated mozzarella will always be in danger of having oil simply run off, but the fresh mozzarella's capacity for incorporating the oil means it will stay nice and moist without running off the edges of your sandwich. And, while an entire pizza covered in fresh mozzarella may make a mess, adding a few slices of marinated fresh mozz to your frozen pizza is another budget-friendly hack that can incorporate more flavor in a single ingredient.