Tart London: How to make festive mozzarella salad

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison start the festive party with a hassle-free mozzarella salad

Tart London

22 November 2018

Off we bound into the Christmas period! Bring on the guilt-free indulgence and festive hangovers. As lame as it sounds, we are already designing the menus for our own Christmas parties. After all, advance planning means less stress come December, and more time to pound the streets present-shopping and party-hopping.

This year we have decided against canapés. Instead, it’s all about bowls of marinated olives, generous slices of fantastic cheese and fresh sourdough to dip into top-quality olive oil. We promise people will enjoy this kind of snacking more than a finicky blini.

At this time of year, you want to keep starters as fresh and hassle-free as possible. For us this dish is the perfect combination of vivid colour contrast, sweet and sour tang and texture; creamy, smooth mozzarella, pomegranate bite and nutty crunch. Feel free to mix up the ingredients, using blood orange or tangerine instead of the clementine, or burrata instead of plain mozzarella. Though if you do, buy small burrata and serve one per plate as it is difficult to share — it oozes everywhere once cut.

If you are having your party on a week night, we highly suggest slow-cooking something in advance. The worst host is one who is slaving away in the kitchen while guests are arriving. Decorate with lots of candles and turn the lights down, which will hide any mess. And if you don’t have time to make dessert then simply pick up the nicest mince pies you can find, warm them through and serve with a big bowl of cream.

Festive mozzarella salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

Knob of butter
1 tsp caster sugar
½ tsp cayenne pepper
100g flaked almonds
4 clementines
2 handfuls of green leaves such as pea shoots or rocket
2 balls of buffalo mozzarella
100g pomegranate seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
Leaves of 1 small bunch of oregano
4 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper

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Method

Heat the oven to 180C. Line a tray with baking parchment. Place the butter in a small pan with the sugar and the cayenne pepper and heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and mix in the flaked almonds. Pour the almond mixture on to the tray and bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes until it’s a crisp and golden brittle. Leave to cool.

Peel the clementines and slice 1/2cm thick. Divide between four plates and scatter the green leaves over the top. Next, roughly tear the mozzarella and place on top of the greens and clementine slices, then crunch over the almond brittle, and sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds, fennel seeds and fresh oregano leaves. Drizzle with olive oil, season and serve.

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Tart London: How to make festive mozzarella salad

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Festive mozzarella salad