These Mozzarella Eyeballs have been a staple of my Halloween party food for several years now. They are delicious, and suitably creepy!
The curse of Halloween food blogging is that many of my Halloween delicacies, made up for the Halloween party, are done at the last minute. So I can’t write them up very well before Halloween, and it seems silly to post the recipes AFTER Halloween. So I was noticing that some of my really cool Halloween treats are relegated to quick photo posts, rather than giving them the treatment they deserve. To fix that, here is the ‘how-to’ on my world famous Mozzarella Eyeballs, classy enough for the fanciest Halloween dinner party!
Recipe/Technique: How to make Marinated Mozzarella Eyeballs
Supplies:
- Big firm olives (black & green). Try the olive bar at your local grocery, or you can go for the canned stuff. The olives need to be firm, not squishy. Jarred black olives work perfected fine for the pupil.
- A large diameter drinking straw (I find McDonalds straws to be the perfect size) .
- Marinated mini mozzarella balls. I get mine at Trader Joe’s.
- Optional: jarred red pepper slices.
Technique:
My original version of this just used sliced pimento stuffed green olives, but then I saw the Evil Mad Scientists and their Eyeball Caprese, and adapted that technique to my appetizer. You basically use the olives to make your nice rounded iris and pupil. For the most rounded, slice of the end of a green olive, then use your straw to punch a hole in the center. Then slide of a piece of black olive, and use the straw to punch out a plug of black. Then place the black piece in the hole of your green olive. If it does stay level with the green, you can use a little cream cheese stuffed in the open end of the olive to hold the black in place. You can also do slices off the side of the green olive, but be aware they will be slightly oblong. you can see I did a little of both for mine in the photo.Note: You can make red pupils by using jarred roasted red pepper, peeled, instead of the black olives.
Once you have enough irises for all your mozzarella balls, you simply arrange the balls on a platter, and top with your olive slices. Depending on the shape of your balls, you may need to slice off a little of the top to get a flat surface on which to sit your olive eye.
Drizzle the whole thing with the marinade from the package, and optionally stab each eyeball with a toothpick for added ‘ewww’ factor and ease of serving!
