Roasted Beet & Fresh Mozzarella Stack with Thai Basil and Meyer Lemon

This dish started the way many of my favorite recipes do. With a plan, a fridge check, and a small disappointment.

I usually reach for goat cheese when roasting beets. It’s the classic pairing, tangy and familiar. But after a thorough and very hopeful search of the fridge, there was no goat cheese to be found. What I did have was a small ball of homemade mozzarella from a couple of days earlier. Soft, milky, and quietly waiting its turn.

It turned out to be exactly right.

The mozzarella didn’t compete with the sweetness of the beets. It softened into them, caught their juices, and let that beautiful ruby bleed happen naturally. Add Thai basil from the Puamana garden, flaky Maldon salt, good olive oil, and a squeeze of Meyer lemon, and suddenly this wasn’t a fallback meal at all. It was a keeper.

Ingredients

• Fresh beets, scrubbed clean
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Maldon sea salt flakes
• Fresh mozzarella, sliced
• Thai basil leaves and blossoms
• Meyer lemon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Scrub the dirt from the beets and pat them dry. Place each beet in the center of a piece of foil.
3. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Wrap tightly in the foil and place directly on the oven rack or on a small sheet pan.
4. Roast for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave the beets inside as the oven cools completely. This slow rest makes them tender and deeply flavorful.
5. Once cool, unwrap the beets. The skins should slip off easily with your fingers or a paper towel. Discard the skins.
6. Slice the beets into thick rounds.
7. To assemble, alternate layers of beet slices and fresh mozzarella, stacking as high or as casually as you like.
8. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of Maldon sea salt, Thai basil leaves and blossoms, and a generous squeeze of Meyer lemon over the top.

Notes

• The beet juice will tint the mozzarella pink. This is not a flaw. It’s the point.
• Eat immediately, preferably standing at the counter.
• Plate licking is encouraged and fully understood.

From my kitchen to yours, With room to wander. Happy creating!