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CHAPTER 1

Mozzarella

MOZZARELLA: THE GATEWAY TO ...

Despite growing up in a Connecticut town that was 95 percent Italian American, located outside the town where they say American pizza was invented; despite little shops that sold freshly baked stuffed broccoli breads and hand-filled cannoli; despite my less-than-ten-mile-proximity to two of the finest ricotta and Mozzarella makers in the entire country; despite all this, as a teenager I was suckered in by Polly-O Fat Free Mozzarella Cheese. Like many well-meaning but not terribly informed teenage girls, I went through a diet phase where I committed myself to eating absolutely no fat. Ironically, it was this fervent dedication that led me to cooking. The first recipe I mastered was a vegetable lasagna made with fat-free ricotta and fat-free Mozzarella. Because the cheeses were fat-free, I piled the lasagna high using an entire doorstopper-like block of low-moisture, vacuum-packed, anemic-looking Polly-O from the supermarket dairy case. I grated it and layered it and watched it through the oven door — softening, melting, bubbling, and browning. It wasn't unusual for me to sit down and eat half of the pan of lasagna because it didn't taste like much, and it never really satisfied. Luckily, I got over this phase by college, but while I kept the cooking habit, I also kept my assumptions about Mozzarella. I always bought fat-free or low-fat, and I took it as a given that the cheese didn't have any flavor. No wonder everyone liked it! There was no way it could offend.

Fast-forward several years past college graduation, when I found myself once again in a neighborhood that was 95 percent Italian American, with all the same breads and cannoli but with a new local cheese on the block. The Mozzarella came from Joe's Dairy or the Lioni Brothers. These fat, almost gelatinous balls were all that was available. They didn't have nutrition facts or ingredients listed on the plastic packaging — they looked like they'd been wrapped by the hairy-armed guys behind the counter. One evening I bought one, because what else was there? At home, ravenous after work and unwrapping my packages in the tiny kitchen, I sliced off a fat round of the Mozzarella ball. Eating it straight out of the plastic with my fingers, I was blown away by how delicious it was: sweet and milky but well salted and wet, slippery on the outside but shredding in the center like a gently poached chicken breast. This Mozzarella was the first time I comprehended the sublimity of simplicity that real food offers. Real Mozzarella was like my first ripe summer peach or my first morsel of Copper River salmon.

When I talk about Mozzarella, I mean real or traditional Mozzarella: freshly pulled cheese curd that is stretched into a smooth, snow-white ball sold in a cup or container, bobbing in a light brine that tastes of sea spray on your lips. Or perhaps that ball is tightly hand-wrapped, the cheese gently weeping a milky juice when you press the blade of your serrated knife against it. In either form, real Mozzarella is the epitome of what cheese folk call fresh cheese. By fresh, we mean: White.

High moisture. No rind. Ideally, recently made. Unaged. Terribly perishable. And, when you get a good one, the purest vehicle for communicating the flavors of the milk from which it was made. Most of us know the taste of cow milk; fresh cow milk cheeses tend to be accordingly approachable in flavor. They're simple, sweet, and clean. Goat and sheep milk are less familiar, and their accompanying grassy tang tastes stronger than what many think of as milky. They are also more likely to be turned into cheeses that are essentially pickled (think feta), so intense saltiness can contribute additional flavor intensity. Along this spectrum of possible flavor, Mozzarella extends a gentle invitation to step through the gateway of fresh cheese and really explore what milk of all kinds is about.

More than a few folks I know in the cheese world claim Mozzarella or burrata as their number-one favorite cheese. Often, they get a lot of grief from other cheese people for touting a cheese that the critics say is pedestrian. Boring. Plain. But the good stuff isn't! Mozzarella and other fresh cheeses, because they're unaged, are incredibly hard to make well. There's nothing to hide behind in a fresh cheese. One needs good milk and proper technique, and the resulting cheese must be sold and consumed in very little time. Texture becomes profoundly important: you're more likely to notice gritty or gummy or pasty glop if the accompanying flavors are subtle and soft-spoken. Small flavor imbalances are suddenly immense: a bit of extra acidity that goes unnoticed in a dense, nutty Cheddar renders a fresh goat cheese inedibly sour. As is true with a glass of milk, my knee-jerk reaction is always to sniff suspiciously lest I start my day with a swallow of something gone rancid.

Fresh cheeses are simple, but the good ones are never boring. They're amazing foils for other flavors, cheeses to be eaten instead of meat — sauced with pesto, oil, or roasted red pepper puree. Sliced and layered with tomatoes. Cubed on a kebab and grilled. Chunked with olives (or watermelon, if you have a sweet tooth). Or, as I once did in my Brooklyn apartment and still do today with my daughters, eaten in shreds with bare fingers while the rest of the meal is being chopped and cooked. Fresh cheeses are often dismissed as cooking cheeses, as if being integral to key dishes in dozens of cultures was lesser or inconsequential. Every cheese-making country has a fresh cheese that's its signature, if not only, important cheese: from ricotta and Mozzarella in Italy to fresh chèvre (goat cheese) in France to queso fresco in Mexico, paneer in India, and feta in Greece. Sadly, many of these have been bastardized by shoddy imitators. If there's one style where buying authentic or, conversely, buying local is likely to make a meaningfully tastier difference, it's here in the world of fresh cheeses. Across the board, these are cheeses made to be eaten quickly rather than to travel long distances, and by their very nature they are cheeses meant to be eaten as part of everyday life. They are also, fundamentally and critically, cheeses about milk. When you take an unaged cheese that for centuries was made from sheep and goat milk and start cranking it out of cow milk, it's not the same cheese. And it's just not as good. Fresh cheeses may not seem sexy, but they're fundamental. It's time to give them their due and acknowledge the wondrous flavors of milk.

Chapter Guide

Welcome to the world of fresh cheeses. An acquaintance new to cheese pointed out to me how confusing the phrase "fresh cheese" is. Shouldn't all cheese be fresh, she asked? Don't I want to avoid cheese that's old? Yes. You do. But by fresh cheese, I mean unaged as opposed to not-old cheese. Cheese has been famously described as milk's great leap into immortality; fresh cheeses are the first possible stop on that journey.

WHAT TO KNOW

->EAT IMMEDIATELY: These cheeses lack a rind to protect them. Those that are brined (submerged in salt water) are the most durable, but once exposed to air even they will sour or mold quickly. This is the only group of cheeses that should be categorically free of color. You want bright, snowy white cheese. Any spots or specks of anything are a sign of spoilage.

WHAT TO AVOID

-> ->COLOR: These cheeses are white and should stay that way. Spots or patches of blue, brown, green, gray, pink, or yellow are all signs of spoilage.

->AROMA: Ideally and typically, these cheeses smell like almost nothing. If you've a keen nose, you might say they smell like milk or maybe vaguely oceanic. Concentrated sour, sharp, or pungent smells are all signs of old cheese.

->FLAVOR: Sour, spoiled, and sharp flavors (basically, the off qualities you'd associate with a sip of milk gone bad).

->EVERLASTING CHEESE: Many of these cheeses are vacuum-packed, with the air removed before they are sealed. This creates an inert environment, protected from the elements, where the cheese can last happily for weeks or even several months (that's how it's possible for a log of goat cheese to have a sell-by date of two months from now). Once this seal is broken, however, the clock starts ticking. Rapidly. Be suspicious of fresh cheeses that claim, once open, they'll be spoil-free for weeks. If they are, they aren't going to taste like anything to begin with and are likely enhanced with preservatives.

STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE

In the village dairies of Italy's Campania and Puglia regions, Mozzarella di Bufala PDO and burrata are famously sold for only a few hours each morning. It's made. It's sold. It's eaten. Obviously we don't all have a latteria down the road from our kitchen, but take a page from this tradition.

Eat the cheeses as quickly as possible. Their essence is subtle and fleeting, even if a week may pass before they go bad.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap to keep air out. If you purchase a fresh cheese in brine (such as Mozzarella or feta), ask to have it packaged in the brine and store it that way at home.

Ideally, consume immediately upon opening and plan to store leftovers no longer than three to five days.

MOZZARELLA TYPES: FLAVOR & AROMA WHEEL

MOZZARELLA: THE GATEWAY TO ...

Paneer

INDIA/CANADA | COW

PASTEURIZED

RECOMMENDED BRAND: Nanak

AROMA: None

TEXTURE: Spongy curd bits

FLAVOR: Room-temperature milk

IN SHORT: The extra-firm tofu of cheese

The fresh cheese of South Asia (notably India and Nepal) is paneer. It's quite difficult to find in the United States unless you have ready access to the Little Indias of Jackson Heights, Chicago, Berkeley, Raleigh, and so on. Made like most ricotta today (from acid-coagulated milk, not whey), paneer is then drained and pressed for several hours, after which it is bathed in cold water. For the adventurous, paneer can be made at home following my ricotta recipe, with the additional steps of draining, pressing, and cold water bathing. These steps result in a firmer, smoother fresh cheese than the fluffy curds we associate with ricotta, but notably it's often made without salt. Accordingly, it's like biting into a spongy milk patty. As with Halloumi, bread cheese, and frying queso fresco, the cheese is nonmelting and holds its shape in dishes like spinach stew (saag).

Cheese Curds

UNITED STATES | COW

PASTEURIZED

RECOMMENDED BRANDS: Beecher's Handmade Cheese, Ellsworth Creamery, your local farmers' market maker

AROMA: None

TEXTURE: Squeaky chew

FLAVOR: String cheese

IN SHORT: Snackable by the bowlful

Cheese curds are the building blocks that get pressed and manipulated into other cheeses. Usually curds sold for eating are those that didn't become Cheddar, and they bear a strong resemblance to Silly Putty. They're a regional specialty of Wisconsin (where they're usually battered and deep-fried to make something akin to but far greater than a Mozzarella stick) and Quebec (where they top french fries and are blanketed with gravy to make the late-night drunkard's friend poutine). If you've never made cheese, it's kind of cool to eat a curd because you can experience what Cheddar is before it ages and becomes Cheddar as you know it. Curds are a simple delight — what string cheese wants to be, a food that anyone can happily, mindlessly eat from a bag, and a blank slate for tossing with all kinds of seasonings (sriracha, buffalo sauce, and curry powder are a few of my faves). Ideally, get 'em fresh (within a day or two of production) when they still have the weird appeal of being squeaky as you bite down (as described by Louisa Kamps at the New York Times, they sound like balloons trying to neck).

Quark

UNITED STATES | COW

PASTEURIZED

RECOMMENDED BRAND: Vermont Creamery

AROMA: None

TEXTURE: Depending on the producer, curdy (like cottage cheese) to whipped

FLAVOR: Mild and milky

IN SHORT: Milk cloud

Although quark (fresh curd) is common food in Germany, German-speaking nations, and northern Europe, I've never seen imported quark in the States — only domestically produced. The closest American equivalent is cottage cheese, although this is a chunky, curdy paste often clotted up with gums and stabilizers, especially when purchased as a fatfree diet food. Quark is simply milk that coagulates overnight into curd, which is then slightly drained and whipped for a smooth, airy texture. It's a naturally lower fat alternative for cheesecakes and baking, or just for topping fruit. Because it's made of milk, the flavor tends to be leaner and ever so slightly more tart than fresh cheeses made of cream.

Mozzarella

UNITED STATES | COW

PASTEURIZED

RECOMMENDED BRANDS: Belfiore, Di Bruno Bros., DiStefano, Lioni Latticini, Liuzzi Angeloni Cheese, Maplebrook Fine Cheese

AROMA: Minimal, fresh milk

TEXTURE: Moist, tender, springy

FLAVOR: Clean and milky with briny restraint

IN SHORT: Eminently snackable

As America has started making more and better cheese in the past 30 years, there is greater opportunity to buy freshly made fresh cheeses. It's less likely that you will be restricted to a low-moisture, tasteless block of Mozzarella, and more likely that you'll instead find freshly pulled or water-packed versions made within a few hours of your home market. These are often marketed under the Italian phrase fior di latte, or "flower of the milk." Mozzarella is also a common cheese for small farms to start out on, so your local farmers' market is likely to yield all kinds of newbies. Look for a smooth, glossy ball that is both springy and tender, and pulls apart like poached chicken breast. Avoid gluey, tough, or sticky offerings. Many supermarkets now pull their own mozz. Although they're buying rather than making the curd, they're doing the hot water dip and stretching, as well as controlling the salt. Raw material matters but so does technique, the mismanagement of which leaves you with dull flavor and the texture of prechewed gum. So this kind of Mozzarella is high risk and potentially high reward. If it's well done, it will be vastly superior to brands that are already packaged. Good to know about, but harder to find, is smoked Mozzarella, which should be flavored by real smoke rather than liquid additives. It is a phenomenally compelling cooking cheese, especially with hearty bedfellows like eggs, cauliflower, broccoli, and leafy greens.

Mascarpone

ITALY/UNITED STATES

COW

PASTEURIZED

RECOMMENDED BRANDS: Bel Gioioso, Ciresa, Vermont Creamery

AROMA: Cooked milk

TEXTURE: Smooth, grain-free fluff

FLAVOR: Sweet cream

IN SHORT: Room-temperature sweet-cream ice cream

I feel I'm doing mascarpone a great disservice if I tell you it's cream cheese. That conjures up pleasantly bland, somewhat gummy blocks of Philadelphia, which is nothing at all like this fresh cheese made from cultured cream, native to the northern Italian region of Lombardy. Rather than beginning with milk, mascarpone starts with full-fat cream. This is gently acidified and cooked at a high temperature, which results in a markedly sweet taste and voluminous, fluffy texture. In my early twenties I worked with a pastry chef who offered to help me overcome my terror of baking and dessert making. She asked me to pick five desserts I wanted to be proficient in. Tiramisu was one of the five — the Italian confection of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and eggy, booze-laced cream. That's when I first got down with mascarpone and found that while you can make tiramisu with it, you can also eat it straight from the container, or sprinkle some berries on it and call that dessert. Technically it has savory applications, but the cooking of the cream imparts a nearly candied sweetness that keeps this cheese all about breakfast and sweets, at least in my book.

Queso Fresco

MEXICO/UNITED STATES

COW

PASTEURIZED

AROMA: Cooked milk

TEXTURE: Springy, squeaky

FLAVOR: Heated milk

IN SHORT: The nonmelting cooking cheese

Queso fresco is the ubiquitous fresh cheese made across Mexico, as well as in the United States. Queso blanco is the name indicating Central or South American origins. I've known it as the nonmelting flecks of cheese atop enchiladas, but eaten alone it's an entirely different proposition. Often milled and then pressed back into a round, different regions of Mexico wrap queso fresco in various leaves: corn husk in the South, banana on the Coasts, no wrapper in Central Mexico. The flavor of good queso fresco is remarkably sweet, like a ricotta that's cooked and recooked, but the texture is firm and springy and crumbles in the mouth. Also look for frying queso fresco, which is smooth and pressed and holds its shape against heat. For those familiar with ricotta salata, imagine a younger, wetter, and less salty version.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Book of Cheese"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Elizabeth Thorpe.
Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books.
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