Mozzarella Sticks with Spicy Marinara Sauce

Who doesn’t love a piping-hot, melty mozzarella stick? Or should I say mozzarella sticks because can anyone really ever eat just one? (The correct answer is no — and if you can exercise self-restraint, you’re no friend of mine.Homemade mozzarella sticks are easy to make, especially because the ingredients are mostly pantry staples, like panko, dried herbs, and canned tomatoes for the marinara sauce. I don’t know about you, but I almost always have processed packaged mozzarella on hand. It’s one of the most versatile cheeses (and I’m a cheese snob)!

I don’t usually advocate for dried herbs, but here they are necessary because fresh herbs will just burn up and sog out your crispy breading. You can definitely substitute with an Italian seasoning mix — really, the quantities are modifiable, so use what you have on hand. Toss the dried herbs with panko bread crumbs — and yes, you must use panko and no, don’t tell me about it if you use seasoned Italian bread crumbs — and set up your standard three-step breading assembly line with flour in one dish, beaten eggs in another, and your seasoned bread crumbs in the last. Cut your mozzarella block into sticks and proceed with breading. It’s important to freeze your assembled mozzarella sticks for at least an hour, so they have time to set and don’t immediately melt and ooze out. But some oozing is good, after they’re fried of course.

While the mozz sticks are freezing, you can make your simple spicy marinara. Adjust the heat to your taste and warm up before serving the mozzarella sticks.

Rarely do I get a good cheese pull, but that’s what these homemade mozzarella sticks are capable of. Hey, you can even make a double, triple, or quadruple batch and stash them in the freezer for those days when only a melty, crispy mozzarella stick (or ten) will do.

 

[tasty-recipe id=”38716″]