Fantabulously Easy Under An Hour Fresh Mozzarella Food

CHICKEN MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Brown chicken in oil, in large skillet.
• Add spaghetti sauce. Simmer, covered, until chicken is cooked through.
• Sprinkle with cheese.
• Can also be served with pasta.

RICOTTA CHEESE AS A BY-PRODUCT OF MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Over medium heat cook the whey to 200*. Remove from heat and squeeze the juice of half of a lemon into the pot. If you don't have lemon use vinegar. Give it a gentle stir.
• Wait 5 minutes or so while you line a strainer, set over a large pot, with a cotton cloth. Cheesecloth will be too open to use so go for cotton or muslin.
• Ladle the curds and whey gently into the strainer and letting it drip into the pot for at least two hours. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of ricotta.
• To make dry ricotta for cannoli filling gently squeeze the cloth, twisting it to release the whey. The drier the better for your cannoli filling.
• Store in the refrigerator.

BAKED ZITI WITH HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE & FRESH MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook ziti until it is al dente (so that when you bake it in the oven it will cook the rest of the way). Rinse in cold water, drain and pour into a 7"x11" glass baking dish.
• Meanwhile, begin cooking sausage.
• Puree San Marzano tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes and salt in a blender until smooth.
• When sausage is done, remove from pan and add 1/2 cup wine to reserved drippings from sausage and bring to a simmer scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan and stirring with wine. While wine is simmering, slice sausage at a slight diagonal about 1/2" thick.
• Add pureed sauce and sliced sausage to wine and stir. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile thinly slice and chop the fresh mozarella balls (some people recommend freezing for a 5 minutes or so to help with slicing, but I never do).
• When sauce is done simmering, pour everything over pasta. Sprinkle 1 cup of the fresh mozzarella throughout (fresh makes all the difference!) and sprinkle the rest on top. Top with a few shakes of crushed red pepper.
• Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until you see it getting a little bubbly. You can even cook it longer it you want it to get a little crisp on top, not too crisp as it will get dry.
• Serve with a bottle of wine and some nice Italian music.

30 MINUTE FRESH MOZZARELLA CHEESE HOMEMADE

Steps:

• Crush the rennet into the water and stir to dissolve.
• Pour milk into a non-reactive pot (no aluminum or cast iron).
• Place over medium heat. Sprinkle the citric acid over the milk and stir a few times. Heat milk to 88°F; milk will begin to curdle.
• At 88°F, add the rennet solution and continue stirring slowly every few minutes until the milk reaches 105°F Turn off the heat. Large curds will appear and begin to separate from the whey (the clear, greenish liquid).
• With a slotted spoon or mesh strainer, scoop the curd into a large glass bowl. (If it's still too liquid, let it set for a few more minutes). Press the curds gently with your hand and pour off as much whey as possible.
• Microwave curds on high for 1 minute, then drain off all the excess whey.
• With a spoon, press curds into a ball until cool.
• Microwave two more times for 35 seconds each, and continue to drain the whey and work cheese into a ball.
• In the meantime, place the whey over medium heat and let it heat to about 175°F.
• When cheese is cool enough to touch, knead it like bread dough until smooth. When you can stretch it like taffy, it is done. You can sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons salt into the cheese while kneading and stretching it. The cheese will become stretchy, smooth and shiny. If it is difficult to stretch and breaks easily, dip it into the hot whey for a few seconds to make it warm and pliable. Then pick it up again and stretch it into a long rope. Fold over and stretch again. Dip in hot whey as needed to make the cheese pliable.
• When the cheese is smooth and shiny (this takes just a few minutes), it is ready to eat. Shape it into a log or golf-size balls, then store in a solution of 2 teaspoons salt to 1 cup water.

CROCK POT POLENTA WITH GOAT CHEESE AND FRESH MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Mix 2 cups of cold water with ground corn in crock pot so there are no lumps.
• The rest of the water should be hot. Mix that in until there are no lumps.
• Mix in the cheeses until mixed. Don't worry if it isn't melted right away.
• Put the crock pot on high and bake covered. After an hour or so, if you're around, give it a good stir.
• Mine has a four hour high and then goes to warm. I let it go overnight and in the morning it's perfect for a morning dish.
• I then put the leftovers in a Saran Wrap lined bread pan and put in the refrigerator to firm up. It can then be sliced and baked, pan fried, etc. however you love to use polenta. You can also leave out the cheese and increase the cornmeal by about half a cup for a plain polenta, add fresh or dried herbs (Italian herbs, fresh basil, garlic, etc all are amazing) to change things up.

FANTABULOUSLY EASY UNDER AN HOUR FRESH MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Dissolve the rennet in the 1/4 cup of bottled water and set aside.
• In a large pot pour one cup of filtered or bottled water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid stirring to dissolve.
• Pour in one gallon of whole milk and heat to 88° over a medium burner.
• When your thermometer reaches 88° remove the pot from the heat source and add the reserved rennet mixture, stirring for 30 seconds.
• Let the curds set for 5 to 8 minutes. At this point I will press my hand down on the curds so gently to see if there is a clear yellow whey liquid - if not let it sit for another 2 or 3 minutes.
• With a long knife that reaches the bottom of your pot start cutting the curds north to south and then east to west into one inch cubes.
• Scoop out the curds carefully and ladle into a quart sized plastic bowl which is microwave safe. Press the curds and drain off the whey.
• Microwave on high for one minute and pour off the whey.
• Quickly knead the curds into a ball with your hands (wear kitchen gloves since the curds will be increasingly hot) or a silicone spatula. Pour off the whey.
• Microwave again for 30 seconds and quickly knead with a silicone spatula, pouring off whey. It's starting to get hot at this point so don't use your hands.
• Microwave a third time for 30 seconds and quickly knead with a silicone spatula and pour off the whey.
• The cheese should be nice and shiny and quite warm and nice and stretchy so wear gloves and knead and stretch the cheese like taffy. NOTE: I make the recipe with a silicone spatula and not my hands. I stretch and knead against the side of the bowl with excellent results and no scalded fingers. Add cheese salt at this point if you want. Separate into smaller balls if desired.
• Drop the ball into ice water to cool.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and eat within 24 hours. For best taste eat the same day.
• Some folks like to make a brine to keep the cheese balls in but I think it is best stored in plastic wrap and made the same day you want to eat it.
• When you become proficient you can add in yummy things at the same time you salt; try sun-dried tomatoes, basil, parsley, what suits you. You can roll prosciutto into it and slice it for a party.
• Save your whey for Recipe #427121! It will only add a few minutes to your kitchen time!