How to Eat Mozzarella

I have a confession to make. Sometimes we just have cheese for lunch or dinner. While it might seem like a quick and/or indulgent kind of menu choice (and it is) it’s actually a menu born of necessity. In this case the need comes from the fact that my refrigerator is full of cheese and if I don’t do something (eat it?) it will go to waste.

Although I am admittedly an over-buyer when it comes to stocking up, this situation is NOT MY FAULT. The cheese in question is – at least 80% of the time – brought in by Sophie. Her excuses include:

• My fridge is too small. (true)
• Daddy will eat it. (Also true)
• Just put it in your fridge when the delivery arrives and I’ll pick it up later. (A blatant lie)

And so the cheese piles up. Where is it coming from you ask? Farmers for the most part. Cheese makers. The kind of folks that have lots of cows and goats and call Sophie their friend. And who, evidently, like to send her cheese.

I can’t lay all of the blame on Sophie. I have farmer friends too, who are equally generous. And in the last few weeks Sophie and I have visited a few farms outside of Rome and our current cheese inventory is out of control.

And so cheese for dinner. Or lunch or even breakfast.

As you know I tend to photograph everything I eat, and so receive a lot of questions. One of the most surprising questions I get about these cheese meals has been: ‘how do you eat that?’

My knee jerk response is: ‘Well, I cut it into pieces and put it in my mouth.’

But since I get this question I LOT I thought it was worth devoting a post to it.

I think the confusion comes when we are eating fresh cheeses like mozzarella, burrata and ricotta. I have a feeling that a lot of people think of these fresh, milky cheeses as being ingredients in another, more complicated dish? For instance I know many people in the states think that if they have a big ball of fresh mozzarella the best, or even only, thing to do is serve it with tomatoes and call it a Caprese. Even if it’s the middle of winter and the tomatoes taste like golf balls. Or else they use it to make lasagna, eggplant parmigiana or in some other melty way.

But really, the way fresh cheeses like mozzarella, ricotta and burrata are eaten and enjoyed in Italy, is on their own. Just put them on a plate, and serve with bread. If it’s summer, then by all means bring out the tomatoes. But if not? Any other kind of salad will do. And if you can’t be bothered to make a salad like this one or this one? This is when I break out my jars of preserved vegetables, like giardiniera or eggplant or zucchini preserved in olive oil.

Another point of confusion I see is how to eat the cheese with bread. In Italy you simply use a fork and knife to cut a piece of mozzarella, then put it in your mouth, followed by a bite of bread if you’d like. American’s tend to put the cheese on top of the bread then take a bite,  making a kind of sandwich. Somehow putting the cheese directly into your mouth without bread or a cracker underneath is just not something most Americans do?

The bread you serve is up to you. If you have freshly made focaccia, that is perfect.

With fresh cheeses you don’t really need any condiments, but a drizzle of your best olive oil won’t hurt. PLEASE don’t let balsamic anywhere near these delicate cheeses since it will totally overwhelm them.

I hope this answers some of your cheese-eating questions. Here are some photos that I hope help you get the idea. But if you have any more question, leave a comment below. I’ll come out of my current avalanche of cheese to answer them.

If you’d like to join Sophie and me as we visit farms and eat cheese all over Italy, we’d love to have you. For our current list of Week long tours see this page. Also, contact Sophie to arrange a day trip from Rome to one of her favorite farms.