Equipment:
- Large stock pot for boiling water
- Large stainless steel bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Curd Cutter
- Hot water (160-165° F) in stock pot boiling
- Warm tap water (90° F)
- 2 cups Salt
- 2 lb. fresh mozzarella curd (*NOTE: We want to thank DiStefano Cheese for providing us with the cheese curds. You can go to their website DiStefanoCheese.com to order from them!)
Steps:
- Fill large stock pot with water to boil. While the water simmers and gets closer to boiling, get a block of curd ready to be sliced into small pieces using a curd cutter.
- Push curds through curd cutter with palm of your hand into a large, flat-bottomed stainless steel bowl. Once all curd is sliced, submerge all of the curd with warm tap water (90° F). This helps with warming the cool pieces of curd before adding your hot water (160-165° F)
- Next, add a large handful of salt over your warm tap water (90° F) bathed curd and thoroughly mix the salt into the curd and warm tap water (90° F)
- Then, completely drain the salted tap water mixture from the curd and immediately ladle boiling hot water (160-165° F) from your stock pot.*DO NOT pour the hot water directly on the curd. So you ladle the hot water around the rim of the stainless steel bowl, covering the now warmed curd to about halfway in your stainless steel bowl.
- The curd pieces should start to stick together once you have added the boiling water. At this time, it's important to start "working" and "stretching" the melting curd using your wooden spoon. Stretch the mozzarella to produce a creamy texture and to remove any rough spots.*DO NOT knead the cheese like it is pizza dough because too much handling will result in a harder texture.**Tip: Bowl of cold water next to you to assist you with the process of "working" the mozzarella is very helpful since your hands are submerged in very high heat while working the cheese.**Tip: If not fully melting, add more boiling water to bowl.
- When the curd is finally cooked throughout, all the little pieces just seem to come together and the mozzarella has its nice shiny appearance.
Shaping Mozzarella Balls
- Shape it by folding it under itself so that you are capturing all the flavors and juices inside, creating a round shape of the desired size. Pinch it closed between your thumb and index finger and place finished mozzarella cheese in a bowl of cool water to seal the inside flavor and harden the outside shape.
Rosa & Rico Graziano's Family Recipe for Fresh Mozzarella!
To find out where Rosa's Bella Cucina will be parked, visit RosasBellaCucina.com and follow @RosaBellaCucina on Twitter.
Also, we'd like to thank DiStefano Cheese once again for providing the cheese curds. Check them out at DiStefanoCheese.com.
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