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Cheese of the Month

Cows have long ruled the mozzarella consciousness of most Americans who've embraced a good Caprese salad. But Italian water buffalo are the beasts we should really celebrate in that ode to fresh cheese and ripe tomatoes.

Cows have long ruled the mozzarella consciousness of most Americans who've embraced a good Caprese salad. But Italian water buffalo are the beasts we should really celebrate in that ode to fresh cheese and ripe tomatoes.

Water buffalo (not the same as American bison) were the original source of Campania's famed mozzarella, dating from the second century A.D., and I still find their cheese superior to even good renditions of cow's-milk mozzarella. The catch is the higher cost and lack of consistency in this delicate imported cheese, which has a tangy savor and a softer center that demands careful handling. I've had mixed luck with other cheeses from Trader Joe's, but its brand of buffalo mozzarella, Mandara, is always superb. The delicate skin is wrapped around a snow-white center that's soft as pudding (but easily sliced) and weeps a milky ambrosia that offers the perfect balance of dairy sweetness and a grassy tang that is so distinctively not common cow, but proud buffalo.

- Craig LaBan

Mandara mozzarella di bufala, $6.49 per 200-gram ball, Trader Joe's, 2121 Market St., 215-569-9282.