marinated mozzarella with basil and prosciutto

This is a brilliant recipe for making inexpensive mozzarella taste like the finest buffalo mozzarella. You can use almost any herb, rosemary, torn bay leaves, thyme or chives, but this is particularly good with basil. Add some chilli flakes for extra flavour.

for 6 as a starter or side salad, 4 as a main course

• 4 x 125g packets of mozzarella cheese
• Large bunch of fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Grated or pared zest of 1 lemon
• Good pinch of chilli flakes
• Salt and black pepper
• 12 slices of prosciutto, to serve

Drain the mozzarella, then tear into chunky strips and put into a mixing bowl. Tear up the basil leaves and add to the mozzarella along with the olive oil, lemon zest, chilli flakes and a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Stir well to combine and leave overnight in the fridge for all the flavours to infuse. Take out of the fridge a couple of hours before you want to eat.

Put a couple of slices of prosciutto on each person’s plate (I particularly like it crunched up and roasted) and serve the mozzarella mixture with more fresh basil leaves at its side.

Almost any good white bread goes well with this, but it’s particularly good with Focaccia and first harvest tomatoes from the Southern Mediterranean.