Buffalo mozzarella and how it is made

• By Daphne Caruana Galizia

Because buffalo milk is much higher in protein and fat than cow’s milk, the mozzarella made from it is far more fortifying. It is also more expensive, because it is in far shorter supply than the mozzarella made from cow’s milk. There are not as many water buffalo in Italy as there are cows. Mozzarella can be made anywhere there are cows or water buffalo, and a great deal of it is made in the southern states of the US and in Australia, where there is a sizeable water buffalo population. In Italy, there are herds of water buffalo in Sicily and even towards the north, and plenty of mozzarella is made there – from cow’s milk as well as from buffalo’s milk. Yet the real thing is that made in the home of both mozzarella and the Italian water buffalo: the Campania province, and particularly the region between Salerno and Caserta, where we stayed. The water buffalo mozzarella produced here was given the official seal of protected authenticity by the European Commission in 1996, and proudly bears the status of Denomenazione d’ Origine Protetta (DOP). Those who produce mozzarella in the province, from milk taken from buffalo raised there, are the only ones permitted to sell their cheese under the official green, red and white badge that bears the legend ‘Mozzarella di Bufala Campana’.

Mozzarella has been made in the homes of people in the Campania province for hundreds of years, but was unknown outside the Naples/Salerno/Caserta area for much of that time, though the Sicilians did pick up the method and some mozzarella was made there. The reason for this concentration in the area is that mozzarella is a ‘fresh’ cheese and so does not travel well. Before the advent of refrigeration and mechanical transport, it could not be sold commercially. The Italians of the north had their own rich cheeses, mainly supplied by the people of the highlands of Piedmont, and so were not interested in making mozzarella from cow’s milk (they had no buffalo). It was really only in the last quarter of the 20th century that mozzarella began to travel out of the Campania province, and then it caught on mainly as one of the three essential ingredients in the classic Caprese salad: mozzarella, basil leaves and ripe red tomatoes.

Mozzarella cheese is classed as di pasta filata, which means that it is made from mixing with water. This kind of cheese was developed in southern Italy – perhaps as a frugal measure to maximise the quantity of cheese obtained from the milk. One of the oldest references to this way of making cheese is by L. Giunio Moderato Columella, who noted in AD65 the method of cutting off bits of cheese from a larger piece, and forming it by immersing it in water.

In the Caserta/Salerno region there are some caseifici (cheese-making concerns) which still make buffalo mozzarella by hand, to be sold at a premium price, alongside the buffalo mozzarella made by mechanical means. The handmade mozzarella is instantly identifiable because its shape is not uniform, unlike the perfect balls that come out of the machines. The buffalo mozzarella produced for the mass export market is made by industrial producers, who keep their own herds of thousands of buffalo, but also buy buffalo milk from the many buffalo farms in the surrounding area, on a daily basis.

At the Salicella caseificio in Francolise, we saw buffalo mozzarella being made by hand. The solid rennet, broken into pieces, is mixed by the curatino (professional cheese-maker) with hot water in a tub, with a rapid and regular stirring motion. All the while, he uses a cup to flush out the excess water, so that there is just the precise amount left to form the cheese. It looks intuitive, but is really the result of long years of practice, often since boyhood. In just a few minutes, the soft cheese forms to fill the tub, and the curatino’s assistants quickly break off pieces and immerse them in a trough full of hot water, shaping balls of mozzarella cheese by hand. It is this action that has given the cheese its name. The word mozzarella is a product of the southern Italian dialect. It is the diminutive form of mozza (cut) and derived from mozzare (to cut off). The word mozzarella is mentioned in writings about cookery dating from the 16th century.

In large stainless steel troughs nearby, hundreds of mozzarella balls float in whey. They also produce other traditional shapes – the small balls called bocconcini and plaited strands of mozzarella, which look like a fat pigtail. These look wonderful served whole with salad, but they have to be supplied fresh, and so are available only in the Caserta area – though supplies are airlifted in polystyrene boxes to the expensive restaurants of Rome, Milan and Turin, and even to Manhattan and London, Paris and Munich where mozzarella has become very fashionable.

Mozzarella is often eaten in Italy with a splash of olive oil, and scattered with salt and black pepper. But buffalo mozzarella in Campania is eaten undressed, because it is considered moist and flavoursome enough as it is. You might prefer it with olive oil and pepper, though. Good buffalo mozzarella will release a few droplets of buttermilk when it is cut open. Refrigeration has a negative effect on the consistency of this cheese, but there is no way around this. Exported mozzarella is always refrigerated, of necessity. For those who live outside Campania, it’s a choice between refrigerated buffalo mozzarella, or no buffalo mozzarella at all.

The Salicella caseificio, which is run by Antonio Pagana and Giovanni Capezzuto, has been in business for 60 years. Mr Pagana explains that every rustic household in Campania made its own mozzarella in the past. It wasn’t a delicacy; it was just a way of preserving milk for a few days longer in the days before refrigeration. Because the herds of buffalo more or less kept themselves, roaming free, their milk cost nothing. “In those days, you can imagine that there was no hygiene,” he says. “The water was heated in the fireplace, the pots and tools were not sterile, and people didn’t even wash their hands before working the mozzarella into pieces. They couldn’t afford to buy containers for the cheese, so they wrapped it in woven pieces of grass.” When they had more than they needed, they took it by cart to the mozzarella and ricotta market that was set up in the town of Aversa, after the unification of Italy. “Every day, they left at midnight to be at the market by dawn,” Mr Pagano says – and that was after a whole day of making cheese. It was a life of hardship that is now beyond even our imagination.

We buy polystyrene boxes packed with buffalo mozzarella to take home with us. On the plane, the stewardess refuses to allow us to store them in the luggage compartment. Apparently, they have had a few accidents before, with whey leaking out and passengers making a fuss. Buffalo mozzarella has to be kept swimming in whey to preserve its consistency, but for no longer than a couple of days, we were told. There was no worry about this. Within three days of our return, all the mozzarella was gone. It’s a rare treat – to get handmade buffalo mozzarella in Malta, it has to be airlifted by courier. At the Salicella caseificio, there were stacks of polystyrene boxes ready for airlifting, all bearing the names of smart restaurants and delicatessens in the cities of northern Italy.

Antonio Pagana (right) and Giovanni Capezzuto, who run the Salicella caseificio. Consorzio per la Tutela della Mozzarella di Bufala Campana
+39 0823 424 780 • www.mozzarelladop.it

The biggest commercial producer of buffalo mozzarella in Campania is Raffaele Garofalo, in Capua. He processes 20,000 litres of buffalo milk every day, producing mozzarella for the big Italian brands like Santa Lucia and Granarolo (which cannot be sold under the official Mozzarella di Bufala Campania DOP label, because it does not reach the market under the name of the actual Campana producer). The Garofalo concern runs three farms of several thousand buffalo, and is developing another one. Even the milk from all of these buffalo is not enough to meet demand for its mozzarella, so Garofalo buys in milk every day from 20 small buffalo farms in the neighbourhood, including all of the De Renzis farm’s daily supply. The buffalo are milked twice a day, and the Garofalo trucks come round every 24 hours to collect the milk.