Provolone cheese

With a subtle flavor and a pale yellow color, provolone is widely used in Italian cooking. Young provolone is dolce, or sweet, aged up to two three months. After it ages and becomes spicier and more granular, the cheese is called picante.

Like mozzarella, provolone is also a pasta filata or stretched-crud-type cheese. It has less moisture than mozzarella and is additionally cured by suspending in ropes or plastic mesh at 85% humidity.

It has a stringy texture. The minimum milk fat content is 45% by weight of the solids, and the maximum moisture content is 45%.

Like reduced-fat mozzarella, reduced fat provolone - which works in both cooked and cold dishes - will save up to 5 percent of fat per ounce when compared with the full-fat product.

For cooking, Provolone is multipurpose. It can be used on pizzas, in lasagnas and for flavorful casseroles. It goes well with tomatoes and fruits such as pears, grapes and figs.
Provolone cheese

Mozzarella from water buffalo milk

Mozzarella is typically manufactured from cow’s milk; however a cheese aficionado would certainly recognize a traditional mozzarella made from domesticated water buffalo milk, i.e., Mozzarella di Bufala.

It is a traditional product of Campania. The Mozzarella di Bufala originally from the area surrounding Naples, Italy, is creamy white, with a paper thin rind and a slightly tangy taste. Authentic Mozzarella di Bufala is produced under strict regulations across seven provinces in central and southern Italy.

Mozzarella is considered a fresh cheese and as such, is known for a typically mild flavor and rubbery texture. Fresh cow’s milk mozzarella is a little milder in flavor than the buffalo type.

To make Mozzarella di Bufala, the fresh milk is cultured with whey from the previous day’s production and coagulated with rennet.

Mozarella di Bufala

After the curds form, they are allowed to ripen for several hours in their whey, then they are transferred to boiling water and heated until they are stretchable.

Workers reach into the hot water and deftly mold the malleable curd into balls.

Buffalo milk is much higher in fat and protein than cow’s milk with just little bit less water. This makes the whole milk Mozzarella di Bufala a much richer cheese than its Italian cow’s milk counterpart, Mozzarella Fior di Latte.

Due to its high moisture, elevated pH, and lack of aging, and hence its propensity to support growth of pathogenic bacteria, mozzarella is made from pasteurized milk.

There are also excellent buffalo cheeses produced in northern Italy, such as Lombardy’s Quadrello di Bufala, a Taleggio-style made by Gritti.
Mozzarella from water buffalo milk

Cheese for pizza

Almost all pizza packaging and commercials show a pizza slice lifted off the pan with strands of melted mozzarella cheese stretching out from the slice to the pan.

Apparently, this stretchy quality enhances consumer appeal for pizza and other prepared foods containing mozzarella cheese. Part skim mozzarella works better than whole milk because the amount of fat in the whole milk mozzarella makes the cheese gray and transparent; the part skim stays whiter.

Regular mozzarella or pizza cheese has a semisoft, elastic texture and is drier and not as delicately flavored as fresh mozzarella.

It is a popular cheese for pizza because it has excellent melting quality. Meltability depends on the proteolytic activity of the culture, fat content, and moisture content of the cheese.

Other cheeses, such as cheddar are being used increasingly on pizza pie to impart more cheese flavor.
Cheese for pizza