We are back!! And with a super simple recipe! So easy that I'm surprised we didn't think of it before.
Cheese Dots pizza buns!!
Our recipe here is a basic one and there are many variants to it:
The sauce: you can use your homemade one, you can use a store bought one. You can buy passata and season it yourself. You can use marinara sauce. You can use your nonna's.
The cheese: we used fresh bocconcini, that I find some brands lack in flavour. My trick: season about 2 cups of olive oil with garlic, chili flakes, oregano, thyme and place the bocconcini in it to soak up all that goodness for at least 5 hours. But you can use it fresh and plain, you can use brick mozzarella, you can use marbled cheese or just cheddar. You can use Friulano (we love that!!!) or gruyere. Infinite possibilities.
Basil: Our pizza buns were Margherita style, but you can add salami or you can use prosciutto crudo. You can leave the basil out. You can add whatever kind of meat or veggie your heart desires.
Our basic recipe, though, calls for:
Ingredients:*
- Cheese Dots - we used 6 to make 12 pizza buns
- Tomato sauce
- Mozzarella
- Basil
*Quantities vary according to how many Cheese Dots you are using. Be mindful of the size of the buns, you should be able to eye-ball everything :)
- Bake your Cheese Dots the way you normally would: preheat oven at 400F and when ready, bake for 20-25 min until golden brown.
- Let it cool completely. It will be easier to make a clean cut.
You could bake them in the morning to finish before dinner for example.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Slice them in half and place them, slice up, on to the same baking sheet you baked them on.
- Now spoon a bit of the sauce on every half and follow by the shredded mozzarella.
- Slide them back in the oven for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly golden.
- Take it out of the oven and finish with basil to garnish.
- Serve immediately.
If using salami, dress the Cheese Dots with sauce, then salami, then cheese.
If using prosciutto crudo: add it after it comes out of the oven to maintain the delicate flavour and texture of the prosciutto.
If you try this recipe, make sure to tag us and/or leave a comment below! We would love to hear from you!