Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fresh Mozarella Cheese

We love cheese. All kinds of cheese. Cheddar, Colby, Swiss, Provalone, Jack, parmesan, and 99% of all other cheeses. The only one I cannot tolarate is Goat Cheese. I won't go into it again. I think I explained in an earlier post that it smells like dirty socks to me and I refuse to eat something that smells like dirty anything. Nuff said. I think there is a brown Norwegian cheese, too, that I remember having a weird smell from my youth. Our latest find is marinated mozzarella. It's twisted and kind of fun to pull apart. We also like string cheese, and I admit it can take me 20 minutes to eat one stick because I like to pull it apart, string by string, just like a little kid! Laughing Cow swiss is a soft cheese that is fabulous with slices of pear. We buy big netted bags of Baby Bel semi-soft cheeses that are surrounded by red or yellow wax, depending on the flavor. Many days I'll grab one of those on my way out the door when I've run out of time to eat.


Our very favorite by far is...

Wonderful fresh mozzarella cheese!

Fresh mozzarella is moist and soft, quick-melting, and delicate tasting (a little bland).
Mozzarella was originally made from water-buffalo milk in Italy. Most fresh mozzarella now comes from cow's milk, both in Italy and here in North America.
It's delicious tossed into hot pasta, the heat of which is just enough to melt the cheese. You'll usually see unsalted mozzarella in a container of water. Refrigerate it in its water and don't expect it to last longer than a few days.

History of Mozzarella Cheese
From the Roma Bella Mozzarella Company.
2,000 years ago Rome was the master of the world and Julius Caesar was the master of Rome. One of Rome's many conquests was the country of Egypt and its beautiful Queen Cleopatra. Caesar returned to Rome and sent his counsel, Anthony, to administer the conquest.
Legend has it that Anthony and Cleopatra fell in love and spent many idyllic hours cruising the Nile on the barges pulled by water buffalo, eating sumptuous meals and feasting on cheese made from the milk of the water buffalo. The Egyptians, seeing the passion between the two, came to regard the protein and vitamin rich cheese as a prime motivator in this mad affair. Anthony became such a lover of the cheese he sent water buffalo back to Rome as a gift to Caesar, with instructions on how to make the milk into mozzarella. Overnight the cheese became a staple of the Roman diet and all of Southern Italy. The breeding of the water buffalo became a passion in its own right in the area between Rome and Naples. Over the centuries, the wholesomeness of the produce sustained the Italian people and could not be duplicated anywhere else.


Our favorite way of gorging on fresh Mozzarella is right out of the deli case in a small Italian delicatessan in San Francisco, or sliced at home and layered with sliced tomato, and a basil leaf. I could weep with the sheer ecstasy of that combination!

4 comments:

tangobaby said...

Ooh! I love fresh mozzerella drizzled with basil scented olive oil, chopped fresh basil and a little cracked black pepper. Tell me your favorite delicatessen in North Beach so I can visit it for you.

;-)

Scriptor Senex said...

What I have never understood is how anyone who has had children can like Parmesan. Never mind smelling like dirty socks, Parmesan smells like baby vomit. Am I the only one who thinks that?

Janice said...

GJETOST!!! Oh my Lord! You've sent me into a flashback! It's a horrible, weird cheese like a block of brown crayon! It IS waxy! And it DOES smell odd! And not even in a good, Limburger kind of way. We would have it at Christmas for my Aunt Maya, who was the only one who liked it. Oh, I need to lie down. Cheese flashbacks.

pam said...

I'm with you, all cheese is good. And I even like goat cheese.

Flora & Fauna

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