Mozzarella Sticks

I hadn't planned on making mozzarella sticks. We had a huge hunk of cheese from making pasta and pizza and I knew we wouldn't be able to finish it before it started growing fuzzy green mold so I decided to make mozzarella sticks. This isn't a complicated recipe, by any means, but still worth sharing for the cheese pull photos alone.

It's a great way to use up loads of leftover mozzarella or if you have a pan of fry oil from frying something else. Or maybe you're just cool and craving mozz sticks because they're delicious and do you really need to think of some sly reason to enjoy them? No.

Ingredients:
8 oz. mozzarella cheese (low-moisture)
¼ cup flour
1 egg
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
+ oil for frying

Start by setting up a breading station with one dish of flour, a bowl with a beaten egg, and a dish with breadcrumbs. Sure you could use traditional breadcrumbs, but I find that the panko is much lighter and sticks more easily to the cheese and it crisps up beautifully.

Dredge the cheese in flour, dust off the excess, dip into the beaten egg, jiggle off the excess, and then press into the panko.

Place breaded cheese onto a parchment-lined sheet pan and pop into the freezer for 15 minutes. Chilling the sticks makes sure that when they go into the fry oil, they breading will have a chance to set and crisp up before the cheese completely melts and oozes and forces the mozzarella sticks to just completely fall apart.

Fry the mozzarella sticks in 325F oil for 4 to 6 minutes or until the crumbs are nice and golden brown and the cheese is ooey gooey melted.

Taste-testing is compulsory to make sure you're doing it right. If the cheese pulls and leaves loads of gooey strings, you've done it right.

As you cook them, keep them warm in a tray in a 250F oven so they maintain their molten state.

Serve hot with a bowl of marinara, or as I did with some vodka sauce.

I served these alongside a giant pan of rigatoni alla vodka, which is maybe kind of redundant - carbs and cheese and tomato times two? - but they made for a delightful little appetizer. The cheese is nice and salty and melty, the breading is super crisp and crunchy which makes for a great textural contrast, and of course, if you serve with a nice acidic tomato sauce, it'll cut through the grease and offer a nice punch of flavor.

Here's the recipe page: