My parents have just come back from three weeks in Italy - taking my Grandma back to see the famiglia. Some mornings I would wake up with over 20 Whatsapp messages from my Dad purely of food (cheers, Den - rub it in why don’t you?) There was fettuccine, there was cannelloni (in fact there was fettuccine and cannelloni on one plate), there were deep fried pizza balls, deliciously juicy tomatoes from the garden, bottles of family wine, it just never ended. 

One dish I saw twice in the torture photos was a mozzarella roulade-looking invention. Though my parents had never seen it before this trip, they said it seemed to be the new craze over in the homeland. I wanted to try it because firstly it contains some of my favourite ingredients and secondly it looks beautiful.

Before I go on I have to say that fresh is best for this recipe. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere where you can access really fresh mozzarella it will be so much easier to make. Unfortunately in Wellington it would be easier to go and milk a buffalo and make your own cheese than it is to find top notch fresh mozzarella. If it isn’t the freshest it will be a little bit hard and thus impossible to roll into a flat mozza-pancake. If this is the case, you can cheat like I did and melt your mozzarella. The end result won’t be as soft and creamy as the proper version but will still taste great.

Mozzarella roulade

Ingredients

One large, fresh mozzarella ball

One large handful of basil leaves

One large handful of rocket

A small pack of prosciutto

Cherry tomatoes

Method

As mentioned in my mozzarella monologue, if you have a really soft ball of mozzarella - use a rolling pin to get it completely flat like a thin pizza base. If you don’t you can chop your mozzarella up and lay it on the base of a large frying pan and turn the heat on. One the cheese melts take it off the heat (waiting a few minutes so you don’t burn your fingers) and then pop it into a ball and roll out the same way.

Now put a layer of basil leaves, a layer of rocket and then a layer of prosciutto over the flat mozzarella. Finally slice your cherry tomatoes into thirds and add a layer of those. Now gently roll as you would a roulade and firmly wrap in cling film, popping in the fridge for one to two hours.

When you’re ready to serve, slice your roulade about 2cm thick.

Outcome

You can serve this as part of an antipasto starter, with a balsamic rocket salad or just as wee appetisers when you have people round. The thing I like most about this recipe is that it looks really impressive with very little effort (unless you do decide to go and find that buffalo). Enjoy!

Read the original on: Jennie Eats Italy