Mozzarella

As teenagers in North Jersey, my friends used to argue the relative merits of the “fresh mootz” sold by one or another local Italian grocer. When I moved to Milan I realized how callow we really were.

Da best mootz? Ya gotta ged it from Campania.

Although there are many excellent cow’s milk varieties, the best mozzarella is made from the milk of water buffalo. It produces a softer, creamier, and more deeply flavored cheese. To roll a milky, velvety slice on your tongue is an experience you won’t soon forget.

Today, mozzarella di bufala is flown in daily to big cities in the United States. It generally sold as a fist-sized ball, or in bite-sized morsels called bocconcini (“little mouthfuls”).

One preparation I rarely see in the United States is the burrata (“buttered”), a scandalously luxurious antipasto. A large mozzarella ball is pumped up with extra cream, which blends inside the casing with the milky, curd-like paste. The first one I had, at the restaurant Ribot in Milan, remains to this day the single best thing I have ever put in my mouth.

(An historical footnote: to support water buffalo farmers is to strike a small blow for global justice.

This is because their herds, which had wandered the area between Salerno and Napoli for nearly two thousand years, were almost completely decimated by the Nazis, who wantonly destroyed much of the country on their retreat out.

New water buffalo were imported from India after the war, and after a half-century of successful husbandry, the herds and their milk supply are fully restored.)