Mozzarella is a fresh, unripened, spun cheese. Its manufacture is relatively simple: the curdled milk is immersed in hot water then “spun”, that is to say stretched, until the desired texture is obtained. The dough is then cut (“mozzare” means “cut” in Italian) and kept in brine (salted water).
If you buy it from a cheese maker, ask for its arrival date: the fresher it is, the better it is. In supermarkets, it is found packed in a 125 g ball, but also in balls for aperitifs and salads, or in blocks, easy to cut, for cooking.
Cow’s or buffalo’s milk?
The “real” mozzarella is that which bears the protected designation of origin “mozzarella di bufala campana”. Made with buffalo milk in a delimited area of southern Italy (Campania and part of Puglia, Lazio and Molise), it stands out for its smoother texture and more pronounced taste.
” Buffalo milk is fatter, explains dietitian Katia Tardieu, spokesperson for the French Association of Dieticians and Nutritionists (AFDN), which gives a mozzarella that is a little more caloric, but also tastier “. It is also more expensive, because the buffalo is rarer and gives less milk than the cow. Reserve it for no-bake preparations and prefer that with cow’s milk for cooking.
Nutritional advantages
Unripened and therefore richer in water, mozzarella is a little less rich in lipids than drier cheeses. Nevertheless, ” it is often believed that mozzarella is a “lean” cheese, but its contributions are close to the average of cheeses, rating Katia Tardieu. It has the same advantages: rich in proteins and calcium, and the same disadvantages: rich in lipids with a majority ofsaturated fatty acids “.
A 40 g serving of cow’s milk mozzarella provides an average of 100 Cal, 7 g of protein, 7 g of fat and 180 mg of calcium, or 20% of the recommended daily allowance. ” The buffalo milk mozzarella is a little more fat (23 g of fat per 100 g against 18 g), but reduced to a portion of 40 g, it does not make a big difference. », Explains dietitian Katia Tardieu.
Specialized bars and food-trucks, mozzarella is all the rage! Behind the famous mozzarella di bufala campana begins to appear on the stalls of cheese makers, and even in some supermarkets, very tasty variations, such as smoked (affumicata), smoked and matured (scamorza) or enriched with cream (burrata and stracciatella) mozzarella. .
The burrata is a mozzarella filled with cream and mozzarella threads, and the stracciatella, the cream inside the burrata. Very smooth, these two versions can be enjoyed with a teaspoon. But reserve them for special occasions because, in addition to their higher prices, they are also more caloric: cream is 30% fat!
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