Creamy Tomato Soup with Baked Mozzarella Balls

By charlotteh371

Ingredients

• for the mozzarella balls:
• 1 steaming hot bowl of tomato soup [scroll down for recipe!]
• 3-4 cubes of mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg white, whisked
• 1/4 cup flour [or a little less]
• approx 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning blend [like Mrs Dash]
• cooking spray

Preparation

Step 1

advance prep: The first order of business is to cube/ball your mozzarella into one-inch cubes. [a little smaller will work too!] In order to survive the baking process, they’ll need to be frozen. Place them on a plate, spaced, and pop them in the freezer. The key here is to prevent them from all sticking together from moisture… otherwise you’ll need to take a hammer to the frozen block of cheese. Once they’ve hardened, move them over to a freezer baggie and continue the freezing process. I usually keep them no less than 4-5 hours in the freezer – though overnight is always better. I make this so often that I keep a little container of frozen mozz balls in my freezer at all times.

Preheat oven to 425F. Keep mozzarella cubes frozen until you have everything set up and ready to go! *Ahem* Don’t let your balls thaw. Combine seasoning blend and panko in a shallow bowl, and egg white and flour into separate bowls as well. Next, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with a wire cooling/baking rack. Ready? Grab your mozzarella from the freezer and prepare to be amazed at how easy this is. Dip the frozen cheese in the flour, then the egg, and finally roll around in panko to coat. Pop it on the wire rack and repeat for the remaining mozzarella cubes. Spray each ball with cooking spray and bake at 425 for approximately 10 minutes. When golden brown, remove from oven and serve atop a piping hot bowl of tomato soup. Grilled cheese is so 10 seconds ago =)

Note: since our ovens march to the beat of their own drum, the balls could take anywhere from 8 minutes to 12 minutes. While they bake, get started on the soup!

These golden balls of cheesy goodness can easily be whipped up for a simple solo lunch or even a hungry crowd, without slaving over measurements! I’ve learned to pre-slice a block/ball of mozzarella and keep the cheesy little cubes in my freezer at all times so I can have balls whenever I want. They’re also really stinking good with pesto.