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Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

February 11, 2013 By This post may contain affiliate links.

Everybody’s heard of Mozzarella Sticks but how about Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto! This dish is perfect for your appetizer loving friends and family, they will enjoy every cheese filled bite.

Everybody's heard of Mozzarella Sticks but how about Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto! This dish is perfect for your appetizer loving friends and family, they will enjoy every cheese filled bite.

Are you going out to dinner for Valentine’s Day or staying home? We’ll be home. I enjoy going out to dinner, just not on a busy holiday. If you share my sentiment and will be staying at home, these heart shaped appetizers would be a nice start to your Valentine meal.

Each savory heart can be created in mere minutes by using store bought pie dough and mozzarella cheese both cut using a heart shaped cookie cutter. Once baked, you can serve them with a homemade red pepper pesto, like I did, or if you prefer, some marinara sauce.

Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts (makes 12)

            with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Ingredients:

Cheese Filled Hearts:

flour for dusting cutting board

1 refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of a 15 oz. box ), thawed
1/4 inch thick slices of mozzarella cheese
1 egg white
optional, 1-2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto:
12 ounce jar of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
1 teaspoon minced roasted garlic
2 ounces chopped roasted and salted almonds
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Supplies Needed:

cutting board
2 heart shaped cookie cutters (2 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ cutters)
rolling pin
pastry brush
baking sheet lined with parchment paper (needs to fit in your freezer)
food processor, blender, or knife

Instructions:

Unroll pie crust onto a large cutting board.  Cut 24 hearts using the larger heart cutter, re-rolling dough as needed.

Cut 12 hearts using the smaller heart cutter out of the mozzarella cheese slices.

Brush egg white over one dough heart, place a mozzarella cheese heart in the center, top it with a second dough heart, press the edges of the dough together. Repeat.

Crimp edges of hearts with a fork.

Brush tops of ravioli with egg white.  Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Optional: Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the tops of each heart. If you prefer you can brush the egg white in a heart pattern on the dough and sprinkle the cheese over top or just leave them plain. I personally like how they look and taste completely covered in the grated Parmesan cheese.

Freeze hearts for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees and make pesto.

Puree roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, roasted almonds, parsley, lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons  of parmesan cheese in a food processor, keeping puree somewhat chunky. Add oil and puree just to incorporate the oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour into a small serving bowl.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender. If you have neither, then just chop everything really fine and mix it together by hand.

The pesto can be made up to a few days ahead of time and kept covered in the refrigerator.

Remove the hearts from the freezer and bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on them during the last few minutes of baking. If the cheese begins to ooze out of the pie crust hearts, remove them from the oven. If some cheese does ooze out, you can cut it off using a knife.

Everybody's heard of Mozzarella Sticks but how about Mozzarella Cheese Filled Hearts with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto! This dish is perfect for your appetizer loving friends and family, they will enjoy every cheese filled bite.

Serve hot alongside the pesto or marinara sauce.If you’d like a similarly easy dessert, why not use the second pie crust from the box to make these…

Chocolate Filled Heart Pastries served with raspberry sauce. See the recipe, here.

 

Items used to create this recipe that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

If you are looking for other treats or gifts to make for Valentine’s Day,
you might like these other recipes too.
50+ amazing Valentine's Day Recipes that you will love. Show how much you care by serving some romantic appetizers, cute treats, and decadent desserts. 

Thanks for sharing!

Filed Under: Valentine's Day Recipes Tagged With: Appetizers, cheese

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Katrina Bahl

    February 11, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    Always so festive!

    Reply
  2. Laurie @ Simply Creating Home

    February 11, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    These look delicious and are such a sweet and yummy idea for Valentine's Day! Thanks so much for sharing. I'll be pinning!

    Reply
  3. Madelein - Mother of six

    February 11, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Oh, that looks really delicious!

    Reply
  4. Shana

    February 11, 2013 at 7:00 pm

    Those look great!!!!

    Reply
  5. Lora

    February 11, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    Aw these are so cute. I love this idea.

    Reply
  6. lizy b

    February 12, 2013 at 12:35 am

    oh my goodness I'm drooling! These look fabulous! We don't go out on Vday either…way too scary.

    Reply
  7. Misbah

    February 12, 2013 at 10:25 am

    they look so delicous.

    Reply
  8. The Partiologist

    February 12, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    Oh my, now that's showing the love!

    Reply
  9. Brenda

    February 12, 2013 at 6:27 pm

    Thanks for sharing … we stay home too … restaurants are way too busy 😉

    Reply
  10. Helena Gasparetto

    February 14, 2013 at 2:25 am

    Hi Beth!

    I'm from São Paulo, Brazil, and I was introduced to your blog by a friend of mine.
    Now it's part os my favorite blogs list!
    Congrats, your work is lovely as well as your posts!
    I own a desserts blog and just posted your "Peanut butter fudge hearts", addapted to our ingredients in Brazil and it tasted amazing!
    Actually, the only ingredient we don't have in here it's the peanut butter morsels.
    I've made some heart shaped fudges and also some marble bars.
    If you could please me with your visit, here's my site's adress: http://www.helenagasparetto.com.br
    Welcome!
    Helena Gasparetto – Brazil

    Reply
    • Beth Jackson Klosterboer

      February 14, 2013 at 2:02 pm

      Hi Helena,

      I'm so glad you have found and have enjoyed my blog. I just stopped by your blog and love how your peanut butter fudge hearts turned out. I really like how you decorated them too. I spent time looking around and was fascinated by all your different desserts. It is so interesting to see the different ingredients used in the recipes. Blogging really is an amazing way to bring cultures together. Thanks for visiting and have a Happy Valentine's Day.

      Beth

      Reply
  11. Always Searching For Knowledge

    July 26, 2013 at 3:14 am

    Just found you..Love this site!

    Reply
    • beth

      July 26, 2013 at 12:25 pm

      Thank you and welcome to Hungry Happenings:)

      Reply
  12. Bec

    October 28, 2013 at 12:07 am

    400 degrees fahrenheit? im from australia so id put it at 200degrees celcius

    Reply
    • beth

      October 28, 2013 at 12:14 am

      Yes, it's 400 degrees fahrenheit or 200 degrees celcius. Sorry about that, I usually try to clarify that in my instructions.

      Reply
  13. Anonymous

    February 6, 2014 at 1:07 am

    How do you reheat these?

    Reply
    • beth

      February 6, 2014 at 3:04 am

      I have reheated them in a 350 degree oven for about 6 minutes or so. I've reheated them in my toaster oven too.

      Reply
  14. crazincookies

    February 12, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    Awesome idea and great snack for kid's school lunch!!! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • beth

      February 12, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      Thanks, they would be so fun to find in a lunchbox!

      Reply
  15. Emma Owl

    February 12, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    Love this!

    Reply
  16. Anna Healy

    February 14, 2015 at 1:39 am

    This is great! I love your recipe – thank you so much! I just made these tonight and would like to have them for our party tomorrow – do you suggest I leave them in the freezer overnight? or put them in the refrigerator after chilling for 20?

    Reply
    • beth

      February 14, 2015 at 2:33 pm

      Sorry, I didn't see this comment until this morning. Freezing overnight would be fine, but you could also just refrigerate them overnight too. You just want them to be nice and cold before baking. If they are frozen solid, they may require an extra few minutes of baking time.

      Reply

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