It's mid week and who is excited?!!? I certainly am, however definitely not excited about more precipitation and less sun on the weather's agenda for at least the next few days, it's relentless!Certainly means that no one is walking around window shopping for art, to say the least, I'd imagine about five people came into the gallery all day.
Enough about how New Yorkers aren't going out in the cold, grey, ick that we are currently experiencing...Anyhow ladies and gents, I thought I'd take a very well known cheese pairing and turn it on its head for you today, hoping that the antioxidant benefits of the fruit involved in the pairing will help you avoid getting a late winter cold and the fruit's color will brighten your gloomy day! When you think Mozzarella what do you think? Tomato and Basil right? Caprese! You see it as a salad, as a sandwich, as ingredients in an omelette, as the topping for a pasta, you name it, that flavor combination is everywhere. And now, not to discount its value, I do think it is a classically delish sort of combo, I just want to suggest that you try something a little different and hopefully broaden your horizons...
My options take two different sorts of routes, one that is definitely a little more savory and one a little sweeter just with one small change...
Obviously both start with our friend, mozzarella, which actually means "to cut" as in the Italian word mozzare. But basically mozzarella refers to cheese that has been spun and cut. It is as you know a young, melt in your mouth cheese if you get a good ball of it. It comes in large or smaller balls (cigelini) and can vary widely depending on where it is made.
Lets get going, so what are we going to substitute the tomato for? Mango! This tropical fruit is definitely at its peak in the summer, but you can still get decent mangoes in the winter months as well, they just get shipped to our cold city from the warmth of the tropics...It is also a stellar antioxidant, high in iron and vitamins A and E, and is also said to help poor digestion.
I propose for you here two different routes with the mango and the mozzarella, if you want something a little more on the savory side and love basil as much as I do: go with a mango, mozzarella, and basil salad or even a grilled cheese with a nice crusty ciabatta bread. You will get a lovely mixture of sweet and savory flavors here. I like to add some red pepper flakes as well to give it that extra added umph! I'd pair this with a nice light Sauvingnon Blanc or a Sancerre such as Lucien Crochet's Sancerre. Fruity, crisp, with a high dosage of minerals. This is a great summer salad or sandwich and a great reminder that summer isn't that far off for us currently in the winter time!
The other option I will provide you with is to substitute the basil for mint and now I would recommend that you make like a chop chop (chop the mangoes and mozzarella into small cubes and toss with mint) salad with the three ingredients and a tiny drop of olive oil and a drop of lime juice. Now you have a completely different flavor profile basically with changing one main ingredient, how cool is that?!?! I would not necessarily recommend making this into a sandwich, not that it would be baaaad, it's just in my mind, those flavor profiles do not necessarily trigger grilled cheese or sandwich. I like this salad for brunch or even paired with a seared salmon dish for dinner...but for our purposes, lets go with brunch and pair it with a nice Moscato d' Asti (a lightly sparkling white wine that is made by stopping wine's fermentation before all the sugars are absorbed by the grape's yeast, what you get is a sweet, easily drinkable, sparkler great for brunches, aperitifs, well pretty much anytime!). You can even get a decent one for $5.99 at Trader Joe's wine, simply called Asti. Granted you can also get one that's a little more expensive such as the Biancospino made by La Spinetta which retails for $15.99 at Astor wines.
What I think is totally cool about this exercise is that you can really get how much changing one ingredient can affect a cheese pairing and can take a cheese that one knows as being savory to a cheese that one knows as being sweet...I recommend trying this with other cheese flavor profiles, you might discover something you never thought possible or something so different from what you are used to.
Enjoy!!!
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