This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn usually appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go. I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives. Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

If the truth be known, most foods were discovered or created by accident.  Early man – or woman – made some kind of “whoops” and something delicious was created.  Legend says that many years ago, a clumsy cheesemaker in Naples, Italy, dropped some warm cheese curds back into the whey.  (Note:  cheese curds are the coagulated mass of white which separates from the watery whey when certain agents such as citric acid and rennet are added to warm milk……remember Little Miss Muffet, sitting on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey?)  When the cheesemaker attempted to recover the curds from the whey, the milky mass stretched and  created what we know today as mozzarella.   The stretching and kneading of the curds is called “stringing of the curd” and is the process used to created mozzarella, scamorza and provolone cheeses.  The name of the cheese comes from the Italian verb mozzare,  “to cut”. Since it is stretched and kneaded by hand, the exact shape of the resulting ball can often identify a particular cheesemaker.

The best mozzarella comes from the milk of the water buffalo.   This origin is a bit misleading to Americans who tend to think of buffalo as the hairy hump-backed beast of the Old West.  In actuality, the water buffalo has been used in Europe and Asia for centuries as a beast of burden, pulling plows and wagons.  The milk of the water buffalo is extremely rich, but not particularly tasty for drinking.  However, this heightened butterfat content makes it ideal for cheesemaking.  Centuries ago, this cheese was seldom found outside a small area of southern Italy.  Without pasteurization the soft cheese spoiled rapidly and could not travel.   Mozzarella is a fresh, not aged cheese, best eaten within 24 hours of being made.  The best buffalo mozzarella cheeses bear the “Mozzarella de Bufala Campania” trademark.  This designation identifies these cheeses as coming from the protected geographical area of Campania.  Naples, a principal city in the Campania region, happens to be the birthplace of pizza.  Imagine that.

Mozzarella is one cheese which is easily made at home.  The Internet is full of directions – there is even a youtube site.   Many cheesemaking companies offer kits for the do it yourself cheesemaker, which include everything needed but the fresh milk.  One site I visited touted mozzarella making as a great Scout project.

If true mozzarella, whether made from buffalo or cow’s milk, is a soft cheese, where did those rubber like sheets of sliced mozzarella hanging on the cheese display at  the market come from?   Those sheets are low moisture mozzarella.  When cooks wanted a mozzarella which could travel and be held for more than a few hours, a method was created to reduce the moisture content of the mozzarella and increase the rubbery quotient of the finished product. These days with pasteurization and hermetically sealed packaging, fresh mozzarella can be made and shipped throughout the world…..even to Walmart.   Fresh mozzarella bears as much resemblance to sliced mozzarella as canned asparagus bears to the fresh spears.  A lasagna made with fresh mozzarella, just made sheets of pasta and sauced simmered long and slowly with fresh tomatoes, garlic, onions and spices is not my mother’s Chef Boyardee.

Perhaps the most recognizable recipe using fresh mozzarella is the Caprese Salad.  This salad is an exercise in simplicity.  Echoing the colors of the Italian flag – green, white and red – it is best experienced when the tomatoes are fresh from the vine……like right now.

Caprese Salad

1 1-lb. ball of fresh mozzarella

a couple of ripe summer tomatoes

several sprigs of fresh basil

Balsamic vinegar

Extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Slice the mozzarella into thick slices (this is best done with a serrated knife).  Slice the tomatoes into slices of the same thickness.  On a plate, alternate slices of tomato and cheese, overlapping them slightly.  Tear the basil leaves into shreds and sprinkle over the tomato and cheese.  Drizzle the plate with the vinegar and oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Let the salad rest about 15 minutes at room temperature so that the juices from the tomato can mingle with the oil and vinegar.  Serve with lots of crusty bread to mop up the delicious juice.  This makes a great supper for two, or a small salad for four.