40 Mozzarella Recipes To Make Your Meals Extra Cheesy

Grilled cheese, mac & cheese, cheesy party dip... Obviously, we LOVE cheese, and nothing beats mozzarella for versatility. Whether you’re just beginning to explore all the Italian cheese has to offer, or are a bonafide expert already, we’ve got a recipe for you. Check out our list of 40 mozzarella recipes—it’s time to get extra CHEESY.

When you think mozzarella, what comes to mind? If you’re in the string cheese and shreds crowd, you’ll be happy to know there’s a whole world of mozzarella out there to discover. At its most basic, mozzarella is a byproduct of the early stages of the cheesemaking process, where Little Miss Muffet’s curds and whey get separated from one another. Take those curds, add a little salt, and work them until they form a ball, and you’ve got mozzarella!

Not that there’s anything wrong with shreds or string cheese. Their lower fat content makes them the best for uniform melting, and they’re integral to some of our favorite mozzarella recipes, like homemade pizza, mozzarella sticks, cheesy garlic bread, and stuffed peppers. When we’re looking to fancy things up though, there’s nothing better than fresh mozz. The different sizes are known by different names (ovoline, ciliegine, and perline are a few popular options), so pick the one that’s best for your recipe. One of the most classic options is to make a caprese salad with large slices, but you can also toss the smaller balls into salads, like our summer panzanella or antipasto chickpea salad, or stick them on skewers, like in our melon prosciutto skewers.

Want to take things truly next level? Try mozzarella di bufala (yep, from buffalo milk), mozzarella fior di latte (from top of the line cow’s milk), or burrata. Burrata is essentially fresh mozzarella surrounding scraps (straciatella in Italian) leftover from the cheese-making process, and it’s DELICIOUS. It’s exceptional alongside pasta, like in our sheet-pan burrata caprese gnocchi, or in a salad, like our peach & burrata caprese salad.

Whatever you do, make sure you’ve got a plan to finish your fresh mozzarella as soon as possible—it won’t stay good as long as it’s shredded or stick-ed counterparts.