How Traditional Mozzarella Cheese is Made in Italy | Claudia Romeo

In Southern Italy, mozzarella cheese is very popular. Every neighborhood has one, if not several, cheese shops that make it fresh everyday. You know when you see Parisians carrying their baguette in the streets of Paris? Well, here it’s very common to see somebody walking around the city with the fresh cheese of the day. I visited my local cheese shop, Caseificio Andriese, to see how mozzarella is made (and had a go at making some myself too!)

Thank you to my subscriber, Deepak DS, who kindly wrote the subtitles for this video.

Subscribe
https://www.youtube.com/@claudia-romeo

Let’s connect
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudiaromeo
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@.claudiaromeo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cldromeo
My Amazon recommendations: https://www.amazon.com/shop/claudiaromeo
Buy me a ☕: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/claudiaromeo

My Equipment – AF
Sony ZV-E10 https://amzn.to/3GJJr7f
Rode Wireless GO II https://amzn.to/3GGo5ax
Joby Telepod https://amzn.to/3jREKiL
Joby Compact Tripod https://amzn.to/3ZaCvqN

Contact
claudia.claudia.romeo@gmail.com

About me
I’m Claudia, a journalist and producer reporting on food. I was born and raised in Bari, Italy, and I have been living in London, UK since 2012. I am the host and producer of Regional Eats on Insider Food and So Expensive Food on Insider Business. I enjoy learning what goes behind the scenes in the food industry, how traditional dishes are made and why certain foods are so important to countries and cultures around the world. Follow me for more food videos!

How Mozzarella Cheese is Made in Italy
#mozzarella #cheese #italianfood #claudiaromeo

We’re in my hometown, Bari, Italy, in the southern region of Puglia. Here in southern Italy, every neighborhood has one, if not, several cheese shops. You know what they say about Parisians walking around Paris with their baguette? Well, here, it’s actually the same thing. You always see somebody walking around

With the first cheese of the day. So that is my task for today, actually. I’m going to go and get some mozzarella for myself at my local cheese shop, Caseificio Andriese. But I’m going to do a little bit more than that and I’m going to see how they make their mozzarella

And quite possibly have a go at making some myself. Let’s go. Unlike other cheeses that need weeks or months to age, mozzarella is a fresh product that comes to life in just a handful of hours after the milk arrives at the dairy. This makes a cheesemaker’s job very delicate.

There is simply no time to make mistakes. After the milk is split into curds, these giant blocks of curd are the canvas, Francesco, our cheesemaker today, will have to work with. The curd is first shredded into little bits, then salt and hot water are added.

Francesco then starts to knead it in the hot water. It is crucial that the water is at boiling temperature because the shredded cheese curd needs to melt and then be born again in the form of this stringy, stretched curd. In Italian, this is called “pasta filata”

And is actually the name of a family of cheeses that comprises other fresh cheeses like burrata, but also hard cheeses like provolone, scamorza or caciocavallo. Most cheeses made in South Italy are actually made using the pasta filata method. But don’t be fooled by its soft texture.

Working with pasta filata is actually really challenging, because, as soon as it gets out of the water, it hardens, making it difficult to stretch it. When the pasta filata is ready, a cheesemaker can give it the shape they want. Here, Francesco is making the classic mozzarella,

But there are also other quirky shapes, like little knots, braids, and even a piglet. So let’s see what I can do. Behind the camera here is Agostino, the owner of the dairy and Sebastiano’s dad, who is guiding me during the process. Once shaped, here it is. Our mozzarella is ready.

It doesn’t need to rest in brine or age on a shelf in a temperature-controlled room like other cheeses. Even storing it in the fridge at this point will spoil it. The best way to eat it: straight out of the hot water, as soon as the cheesemaker has given it its shape.

The dairy makes from 200 to 300 kilograms of fresh cheese every day. This includes mozzarella, but also ricotta, scamorza and stracciatella, which is the filling of the burrata. And if you haven’t tried it yet, it’s delicious. Working with fresh cheese is also a gamble for dairies here

Because it requires great planning and expertise. The type of mozzarella that we have seen today is made with cow’s milk and it’s typical of the region of Puglia, where we are today. If you visit the west coast of Italy, on the other hand, in particular Naples and its region Campania,

You will find that mozzarella there, is made with buffalo milk and there are even more varieties of mozzarella in other Italian regions. If you made it this far, this means that you have watched the entire video. So, thank you so much for your support. It really means a lot to me.

If you have enjoyed this video, please don’t forget to subscribe. And if you haven’t yet, you can go and watch this other video on how traditional Italian meatballs in tomato sauce are made. In this video, I visited Il Polpettificio, a restaurant that makes thousands of meatballs every day,

And they showed me what they call the ‘Nonna’s recipe’ and I can tell you, being Italian, meatballs like that are exactly what I would expect at my grandma’s place. Everything from the smells, you know, the smells in the room to the texture, perfect texture of the meatball and also, the vibrant colors.

You know, the colors of the fresh tomato sauce that blends in with the oil after it’s been cooked for several hours. That really takes me back to my childhood and just my time spent at my grandma’s house, eating meatballs, of course. So again, if you haven’t yet,

You can go and watch that video and stay tuned because there’s going to be more content coming soon. A little bit of a spoiler here, the next video is going to be about pancetta, a very famous Italian cold cut loved by many.

And for this video, I went and visited an old friend, Andrea, who runs a family business making all sorts of cold cuts in my home region, Puglia. Cheese lovers, fear not, there is some cheesy content coming for you, as well. After pancetta, the next two videos will be about two traditional cheeses,

Of my home region Puglia. One is about a cheese that is so rare, there are actually only four dairies in the whole world who are preserving the traditional method to make this cheese. The other one is about how you can make a classic traditional cheese stand out

Using the products of your own territory. I know that doesn’t mean much for now, but I don’t want to spoil everything like I did for pancetta. Please remember to subscribe so you can get instant access to all my new content and well, what else to say? In two weeks, it’s pancetta time.

See you there!