How do I stop my mozzarella bagels being soggy?

[Ninnier]

I toast my bagels first, then put them in the airfryer with the mozzarella on one half and pesto on other. Pesto side is lovely and crispy and other is a soggy mess.

I assume that you use grated mozzarella?

No, balls sliced.

Swap to grated

I toast the bagels slightly first before adding topping, I use grated mozzarella.

Grated mozzarella

Use pizza mozzarella.

Ah OK.

Will try that.

Thanks

Fresh mozzarella still contains whey, so on warming that runs out before the curd component melts: which is why Italian pizzas don't have as much mozzarella on as take-aways which have the grated partially dried mozzarella.
In your shoes I'd just eat the bagel with cold mozzarella, rather than using dried/grated.

Melt the mozzarella in the microwave then spread on the toasted bagel.

You can also sometimes get block mozzarella which doesn't have the weird powdery coating that grated stuff does, but the main problem is the whey coming out off the ball.

Cutting it into cubes and leaving it on kitchen roll for a few minutes helps a bit, but that type isn't really suited to melting, more for salad.

You can press the whey out of fresh mozzarella with kitchen roll.