You ARE that good, Myscha..! Thanks for all the ideas!
Ten Things to Do With Bulk Block Mozzarella
Photo: Jarrod Lombardo
1. Restaurant style mozzarella stick appetizers. Recipes for these things abound online, but a couple of tricks I can personally attest to (after years of screwing these things up) are flash freezing (placing them all slightly apart on a cookie sheet and freezing until solid before packaging) and putting these things in the deep fryer when still frozen. About two to two and a half minutes will do it. Serve with homemade marinara for restaurant pizzazz on a do it yourself budget.
2. Fondue – This is a fun, cheap snack that lets you throw a budget party or luncheon on a dime. I’ve seen recipes for beer and cheese fondue, mozzarella and tomato, or fun pizza fondues that kids of all ages are sure to love.
3. Cheesy homemade meatballs – These are pretty yummy. You just need to grate some up and put it in with the meat and seasonings while you are mixing up your batch.
4. Create your own pizza party – Again, you’ll need to shred some in advance (I recommend a wide mouth food processor.) and set it aside with other pizza toppings and sauce options. Have a couple of small crusts available for each person, and let everyone create their own personal pizza(s). Great for a teen sleepover.
5. Middle East snack sandwiches – Block mozzarella is the closest thing I’ve seen to Haloumi cheese since I left the Middle East. Small sandwich rolls with sliced Roma tomatoes and a spread of olive oil and zaatyr are great with quarter-inch thick slices of this cheese. These are great hot or cold, are popular with teenagers (at least the ones we’ve had around), and make a great meatless sandwich idea if you need to have some on hand. A colleague of mine had me to her home in Riyadh for lunch one time. We had a toasted version of these with tea. Yum!
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6. String cheese – Cut the block into half-inch slices and those square slices into long sticks. Voila! Homemade string cheese for lots less. Extra bonus? Kids dig it.
7. Veal, eggplant or chicken Parmesan – Either the sandwich or pasta versions can be done with this. And who doesn't love some form of Parmesan?
8. Bruschetta – In Italy, I would hit Penny Market for the two-packs of French bread they had for around a buck, USD. With a little olive oil, chopped tomatoes, garlic, parsley and shredded mozzarella, I could pull off pre-dinner appetizers for a crowd. Talk about dinner style on the cheap!
9. Party tray – Just cube it up and add fresh veggie sticks and dip. Toss out some toothpicks in a small vessel and you are good to go!
10. Casserole jazz up – I like to use the shredded stuff for this, but you could top a casserole with the thinly shaved stuff too.
Personally, I'm always on the lookout for ideas for using this stuff. If you have a cool one, please let us all know!
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You're welcome. This stuff is really so affordable at a time when many cheeses just are not. While it's easy to think you can only slice it off for sandwich toppings, I wanted people to know there are definitely some "large living" tricks you can pull off with it.
Thanks for commenting.
another lil appetizer trick is to soak the chunks of mozza in good olive oil seasoned with salt, pepper and other things like crushed garlic or dried parsley. when they absorb some flavour, thread them onto kabob sticks with cherry tomatos, peppers or whatever else and have appetizer caprese stickes.
Wow! I just found Wise Bread and am finding this pretty interesting ! ( Those bulk recipes for mozzarella sound really good !) I love ideas that are well thought out and frugal. I will make sure to put those ideas to use, and be back here for more !
