CurdNerds

Close your eyes and picture heaven; are there soft, billowing clouds, soaring golden gates, and friendly angels flapping their feathery wings through the honeyed air? Not for me there aren't. For me there is nothing but a vast expanse of mozzarella di bufala, small white puffs of fior di latte extending in all directions even past the horizon. Instead of angels, I see water buffalo; in place of golden gates I see giant wooden barrel vats with fresh curds floating in green whey.

So too, apparently, do the Curd Nerds over in Switzerland. Today's New York Times has a fascinating article on a Swiss farmer who has begun making mozzarella from the milk of the water buffalo, in part a response to the burgeoning love for the cheese among the Swiss. Of course, Switzerland is perhaps the global capital of cheese, and the folks who live their certainly love to eat it. According to a recent survey, the Swiss eat on average 20 kg (44 lbs.) of cheese per person per year. You'd think that they'd be eating mostly Gruyère, Raclette, or Emmenthaler, but in fact, recent statistics suggest that, according to the New York Times article, "each Swiss consumes roughly 12 pounds of mozzarella a year, more than any other cheese."

Mozzarella isn't the most flavorful cheese, but what it lacks in flavor, it more than makes up for in its supple yet stringy texture. It is this quality that seals its role as perhaps the best melting cheese on the planet, and even raw it takes on some of those melty characteristics. And as good as the cheese is when made with cow's milk, it reaches altogether unheard of heights when made with the creamy milk of the water buffalo. Now that the Swiss are discovering this superior version of the old favorite--which is called büffelmozzarella, because the Italians have legally protected the name mozzarella di bufala from any imitators--it will be interesting to see and to taste what the future holds for the heavenly cheese we call mozzarella.

Purchase Mozzarella di Bufala for $9.99/lb at iGourmet.