Whipped Mozzarella Dip with Burst Cherry Tomatoes

Whipped mozzarella dip is a caprese salad rearranged for a spoon: fresh mozzarella whipped in a food processor with ricotta and a little cream into a thick, snowy, spreadable cloud, spread in a shallow bowl and topped with cherry tomatoes that have been cooked in garlicky olive oil until they burst into their own sauce, then a streak of balsamic and torn basil. Warm, sharp tomatoes over cold, milky cheese, scooped up with grilled bread. It takes 20 minutes, most of it the tomatoes, and it belongs on any table where a caprese would, including the October and November ones where fresh tomatoes are firm and need the pan.

The recipe card at the bottom has the amounts and numbered steps for a bowl that serves 6 with bread. This guide covers what fresh mozzarella is and why it whips, the ricotta and cream and why the cheese must be at room temperature, the burst tomatoes and why they pop, the finishing basil and balsamic, and serving and make-ahead. It sits in the site's recipes collection with the baked caprese bites, the same three flavors in a pastry cup.

What Fresh Mozzarella Is and Why It Whips

Fresh mozzarella is a stretched-curd cheese. The curd is submerged in hot water and pulled and folded while it is soft, and the Cheese Science Toolkit, the food-science reference built by the late Purdue-honored cheese scientist Patrick Polowsky, explains that the stretching aligns the protein into strands, with pockets between the fibers that hold fat and serum. That structure is why a ball of fresh mozzarella tears into layers and squeaks between the teeth, and it is also why it will not spread on its own: cold, the aligned protein strands are rubbery, and a knife just pushes them around. A food processor solves it. The blade shears the strands into fragments, and once the fragments are small enough they take up the fat and water around them and turn into a smooth paste.

Buy a whole-milk fresh mozzarella ball packed in water, not the low-moisture block for pizza, which is drier, saltier and never whips creamy. BelGioioso, the brand in most American cases, describes its fresh mozzarella as made from local milk gathered only a few hours after milking, porcelain white and mild, and it comes in water-packed cups; drain it well and pat it dry, because the packing water is the one liquid the dip does not need. Then let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes. Fresh mozzarella whips at room temperature and fights you cold, because its fat is firm below about 60°F and soft above, and soft fat is what lets the sheared strands smear into a cream instead of crumbling into rubber.

Whipping: Room-Temperature Cheese, Then Ricotta and Cream

Tear the drained, room-temperature mozzarella into rough pieces and put it in the food processor with the ricotta, cream, a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and the zest of half a lemon. Process for a full minute, scrape the bowl, and process another 30 seconds to a minute, until it is smooth, thick and glossy, with no visible shreds. It will look grainy and hopeless for the first 20 seconds; keep going. What happens in the bowl is an emulsion forming: the sheared mozzarella protein and its fat, the ricotta's fine curd and the cream's fat and water are beaten into one continuous, spreadable mass, the same way cream cheese and sour cream whip into the base of the site's caramelized onion dip. If it stays stiff, add cream a tablespoon at a time; if it turns soupy, the mozzarella was wet or the cream was overdone, and 10 minutes in the refrigerator firms it.

Taste it before it leaves the bowl. Fresh mozzarella is barely salted and ricotta is not salted at all, so the dip needs more salt than seems right, and the lemon zest is there to keep it from tasting like plain milk. Spread it in a shallow bowl with an offset spatula, swirled deep so the tomatoes and oil have ridges to pool in, and refrigerate it while the tomatoes cook; the contrast of cold cheese under hot tomatoes is the dish. It can be whipped a day ahead and kept covered, and will be firmer from the cold; stir it once before spreading.

Burst Cherry Tomatoes: Why They Pop

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high until it shimmers, add two cups of whole cherry tomatoes with a good pinch of salt, and leave them alone. For the first few minutes the skins blister against the hot pan; then, one by one, they burst. A cherry tomato is a sealed skin around a body that is mostly water, and as the tomato heats past the boiling point that water turns to steam inside the skin faster than it can escape, until the pressure splits it. When most have burst, 8 to 10 minutes in, press a few with the back of a spoon so their juices run into the oil, add the sliced garlic and a pinch of chili flakes, and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until the garlic is just golden; the tomato juices and oil come together into a loose, glossy sauce, with the tomato's own pectin and pulp holding the two together.

The garlic goes in late for a reason. Sliced garlic browns in under two minutes in hot oil and burns bitter soon after, because its sugars caramelize and its surface dries fast, so it is added once the tomatoes have already done their slow work rather than at the start. Off the heat, stir in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. True Aceto Balsamico di Modena is a blend of cooked or concentrated grape must and wine vinegar aged in wood, governed by the consortium that publishes its production rules, and the grape must is what gives it a sweetness that plain vinegar lacks; a spoon off the heat keeps its aroma, where a spoon in the hot pan boils it away. Any tomato can take this treatment, which is why the dip works in November; the pan does what summer would have.

Basil, Serving and Make-Ahead

Spoon the warm tomatoes and their sauce over the cold whipped mozzarella, leaving a white border, and tear the basil over at the last second. Basil goes on after for the same two reasons it does on a caprese: heat drives off the volatile oils that carry its aroma, and cut or bruised leaves blacken through enzymatic browning, which Rutgers' postharvest guide to basil lists as the mark of a leaf that has been chilled or damaged. Keep the bunch in water on the counter, not in the refrigerator, and tear rather than chop. Finish with a thread of olive oil, flaky salt and black pepper.

Serve with grilled or broiled bread, brushed with oil and charred in spots, or with crackers and cucumber for a lighter table. Plan on about a third of a cup of dip per person as one of several appetizers. Make-ahead: the whipped cheese keeps 2 days covered in the refrigerator, and the tomatoes can be cooked a day ahead and rewarmed gently; assemble just before serving so the hot-on-cold contrast is there. Leftovers keep 2 days and are good cold, spread on toast. On the same table, the cranberry cream cheese dip is the sweet counterpart and the Boursin stuffed mushrooms the hot one.

Whipped Mozzarella Dip with Burst Cherry Tomatoes

Room-temperature fresh mozzarella whipped in a food processor with ricotta, cream, olive oil, salt and lemon zest until smooth, spread in a shallow bowl and topped with cherry tomatoes burst in olive oil with sliced garlic and chili flakes, finished with balsamic, torn basil and flaky salt. Serves 6 with grilled bread.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Servings 6 servings

Calories 290 kcal

Ingredients

  

• For the whipped mozzarella
• 8 oz fresh whole-milk mozzarella, drained, patted dry, at room temperature
• ½ cup whole-milk ricotta
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream, plus more if needed
• 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• ½ lemon, zest only
• For the burst tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
• 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 pinch red chili flakes
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 8 fresh basil leaves, torn
• Flaky salt, black pepper, and grilled bread to serve

Instructions

 

• Let the drained mozzarella sit at room temperature 30 minutes. Tear it into pieces and put it in a food processor with the ricotta, cream, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt and the lemon zest. Process 1 minute, scrape the bowl, and process 30 seconds to 1 minute more, until smooth, thick and glossy. Add a little more cream if it stays stiff. Taste for salt.
• Spread the whipped mozzarella in a shallow serving bowl in deep swirls. Refrigerate while you cook the tomatoes.
• Heat the 3 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Add the tomatoes and salt and cook without stirring much, 8 to 10 minutes, until the skins blister and most of the tomatoes burst. Press a few with the back of a spoon to release their juices.
• Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the garlic is just golden. Remove from the heat and stir in the balsamic.
• Spoon the warm tomatoes and their sauce over the cold whipped mozzarella, leaving a white border. Tear the basil over, drizzle with olive oil, and finish with flaky salt and pepper. Serve with grilled bread.

Notes

Fresh mozzarella only, at room temperature, or it crumbles instead of whipping; process a full 1½ to 2 minutes. Add the garlic late so it does not burn, the balsamic off the heat, and the basil at the table. Whipped cheese keeps 2 days; assemble just before serving for the hot-on-cold contrast.

More for the party table: baked caprese bites, caramelized onion dip, and cranberry cream cheese dip. Hot side: Boursin stuffed mushrooms.

Whipped Mozzarella Dip FAQs

The questions that come up most: whether fresh mozzarella can really be whipped, why it came out grainy or rubbery, whether low-moisture mozzarella works, whether it can be made ahead, what to serve it with, how to burst the tomatoes without a mess, whether it can be served warm, and how long it keeps.