Marinated Mozzarella in Sour Cream with Lemon and Thyme

This is great when you’re in a hurry and always a big hit when you have guests around, as it’s quick and easy to make. This amazing salad transforms a piece of lovely mozzarella into something really special because it’s really tasty and gorgeous to make a beautiful centrepiece

• 4 balls of buffalo mozzarella
• 6 tbsp of sour cream
• thyme (or you can use basil or marjoram)
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• red chillies

Slice up 4 balls of buffalo mozzarella around 1cm thick, place on a large plate and smear all over with around 6 heaped tbsp of sour cream.

Season well with sea salt and black pepper and then wash the lemon and grate the lemon zest, Sprinkle this over the mozzarella and squeeze over half of the juice.

Sprinkle over a handful of fresh thyme. Halve, deseed, and finely slice a couple of fresh red chillies. Sprinkle over the mozzarella, drizzle over some good quality extra virgin olive oil, Taste for a good balance of flavours. and serve in the middle of the table. Any left-over’s will keep a couple of days in the fridge, and can be used in any sandwich.

You may think adding sour cream to the mozzarella is a weird idea, but the flavours complimented each other really well, and the lemon and chilli kept it from being boring and gave it that extra edge.