How To Make 13 Artisanal Italian Cheeses | Handcrafted

[mid-tempo hand drum music] [water drips]

[Rynn] My name is Rynn Caputo.

I'm a cheese maker and founder of Caputo Brothers Creamery.

Today, I'm gonna be showing you how

to make fresh and aged pasta filata cheeses.

When we're making cheese,

the main ingredient is going to be the curd

that we're gonna use to stretch into the different cheeses.

First cheese we're gonna be making today is fior di latte,

or, as most people know it in this country, mozzarella.

We're starting with about two pounds of curd

that we need to break up and salt

so that we can stretch into fresh mozzarella.

Mozzarella is really the pasta filata

that is the foundation for all

of the other fresh cheeses we'll be working with today.

[mid-tempo hand drum music]

When we're breaking up the curds,

we wanna make sure that we don't crush or crumble the curds.

We're really just trying to peel them apart.

This is an important step in the process

because we want the curds to be about the same size

so that they heat consistently.

For two pounds of curd, I'm adding about 100 grams of salt.

[spoon scrapes]

Although all cheeses start from curd,

what makes pasta filata cheeses different

is that they are finished by stretching.

In order to get these cheese curds to stretch,

we need to add hot water.

190 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature we'll be using

to make all of the cheeses today.

I'm gonna add hot water twice.

The first time, I'm tempering the curds,

just trying to get them all up

to temperature at the same time.

Then I'm gonna pour off three quarters of the water.

[water pours]

Once I add the second shot of hot water,

I'll see the curds starting to stretch.

I want to get it up on this wooden spoon

so I can allow those proteins

that got loose to now elongate.

It's the elongation of those proteins that allows us

to have this beautiful waterfall stretch,

as we like to refer to it.

What I'm trying to do is work out about 80%

of the lumps and the bumps to really get the smooth

and shiny consistency that I can then form

into the balls of mozzarella.

It's important that I keep as much moisture

and butterfat inside the cheese.

Once I've gotten two to three good,

consistent waterfall stretches

and I see that about 80 to 90% of the lumps

and the bumps have been worked out,

I know that I'm ready to form my balls in mozzarella.

[spoon taps]

This technique will be used in each

of the pasta filata cheeses that we'll be making.

I'm gonna gather the mass together,

making a C with the thumb and first finger of each hand.

I'll squeeze the C of my left into the tightest fist I can.

Then I'll break the cheese apart.

That's where the word mozzarella comes from.

[speaks in foreign language] means to break or to cut.

Putting it in the cold water

will now help that cheese continue

to keep this shape as it cools.

I stretch so much mozzarella that I

can make an eight-ounce ball every time you put them

on the scale, and they're all exactly eight ounces.

Now, because this water is 190 degrees,

it tends to be pretty hot on the hands,

and I like to keep cold water close by.

If you just put one hand in cold water,

your brain actually tells the other hand that it's cool,

so you don't have to cool both hands at the same time.

The next cheese I'm gonna make is broken and bocconcini.

You're actually using the same technique

to make the ball but you're making it so much smaller,

forcing more cheese into a compact space,

and that actually changes the consistency

of the cheese quite a bit.

So it's more like an al dente pasta would be.

Ciliegine is the next cheese I'm gonna make,

and it's the same word as cherry because that's the size.

This is typically something that you would see

on an antipasti plate and often is marinated.

The next cheese I'm gonna make is perlini, small pearls.

This is a cheese that would be used more like an accent.

The smaller the cheese,

the more compact the protein chains are,

the firmer the cheese is when you bite into it.

The first four cheeses I made in the mozzarella family,

fior di latte, bocconcini, ciliegine, and perlini.

Next I'm gonna make burrata, but before I can do that,

I need to start with its foundation, nodini.

[water pours]

Nodini uses the same stretching technique

as the other mozzarella style cheeses.

[mid-tempo soft percussive music]

In this case, I'm just gonna be making a different shape.

We're making more of a rope,

and that rope essentially is taking those proteins

and making them into very long strings.

It's not just to make it pretty.

It's really about a mouth feel.

[water drips]

To make a bigger knot, I'm gonna keep the rope thicker,

make a quick tie, and push the knot up towards the top

of the rope, similar to tying a neck tie.

[water drips]

Another thing I can do is make stringale.

Stringale is literally string cheese.

I'm gonna make stracciatella now.

The first thing I'm gonna do

is add good quality heavy cream into a bowl.

Then I'm gonna add salt to the heavy cream.

Stracciatella is actually a very easy cheese to make.

I will use the nodini or the stringale

to tear the cheese apart, making strings.

burrata was actually invented as a leftover cheese.

Traditionally, stracciatella would be made from nodini

that was refrigerated the day before

because after refrigeration,

the texture might've gotten a little tough.

By tearing it apart and placing

in a heavy cream, it'll tenderize.

Now I'm ready to make the burrata.

[up-tempo jazzy hand drum music]

Instead of placing the ball of mozzarella in the water,

I'll actually flip it over and flatten the edges,

making a ravioli shape.

[water laps]

That meaty center of the ravioli shape

can now be used to insert the stracciatella.

[water drips]

That cheese that was in the center

will now start to create a little pouch

that the stracciatella can sit in.

I'll gather up the sides that I made thin

and press the cheese together, sealing it tight.

To me, burrata's the perfect example

of how Italians waste nothing.

That was nodini, stracciatella, stringale, and burrata.

Now let's make sfoglia.

[up-tempo soft percussive music]

sfoglia is a very versatile cheese and translates to sheet.

I'm going to treat this as if it was pizza dough,

put it into a sheet pan, and then fill it.

Once the sfoglia is properly stretched,

instead of placing it in cold water,

I'm actually gonna wrap it tight

and place it in the refrigerator to get it to cool down.

Now it's time for me to roll it up.

I'm add greens and prosciutto.

It's typically something that would be on top of the counter

and would be served as a lunch item in caseificios,

and then you eat it like a sandwich.

As I'm rolling, I wanna make sure I keep it nice and tight

so I can cut it into sections and they'll stay together.

[knife clatters]

The last fresh cheese I'm gonna make today is treccia,

or a braid.

[mid-tempo hand drum music] [water pours]

The braided cheese is really a nice way

for the cheese maker in Italy to show off.

When I started making cheese 15 years ago,

it was not common for there to be women

in the production area of a caseificio.

So when I first started to make treccia, it was tough.

[water drips]

One day I was working with Rafaele, a cheese making friend,

and I took a video of him.

He makes amazing treccia,

and I spent that night watching the video over

and over again, working with a piece of rope

until I was finally able to get it down,

and the next day when I came back to work

and it became time to do treccia,

I was able to show off my technique.

And Rafaele, he came across to me and he said,

[speaks in foreign language].

He called me cheese maker, and it was a really cool moment.

These are all the finished fresh pasta filata cheeses.

Now I'm gonna show you how

to make aged pasta filata cheeses.

The first thing I'm gonna do is make a salamoia

or salt brine.

[mid-tempo percussive music] [salt clatters]

To make a fully saturated salt brine,

I need three pounds of salt for every five gallons of water.

For aged cheeses,

we're going to be putting those in the cave,

and so I need to make sure that the salt is on the outside

of the cheese to preserve the cheese properly for aging.

Now I'm gonna make provola,

which is just a small format of provolone.

Provola is a cheese that you would typically see

in the deep South.

This is a cheese that would be aged for three

to six weeks typically and eaten quite young.

The only difference in the stretching technique

of aged cheeses is once I reach the waterfall stretch,

I want to vigorously work the cheese

to remove as much moisture and butterfat as possible.

To work out the moisture from the cheese,

I'm going to stretch the cheese into long ropes

and then fold it over on itself.

At different points in the process,

my hands actually tell me when the cheese is ready.

I'll start to feel it getting firmer,

and the curd starts to feel a little drier.

[water drips]

In this case, I'll be making a log.

[water drips]

One of the most important techniques

of being a good pasta filata cheese maker

is knowing that you do not stretch the cheese.

It stretches itself.

In this case, we're letting gravity do the hard work.

I'm gently holding the cheese from the top,

and I'm letting the cheese stretch under its own weight.

To allow a good seal at the bottom,

the cheese will elongate into a teardrop shape.

Again, I am just the guide here.

The cheese is melding together, forming the seal on its own.

Once I find that closure, I remove the excess cheese

by breaking it apart and place it in the cold water

to ensure the seal stays closed.

Now I'm going to make caciocavallo,

literally translated horse cheese

because when it's bound together and aged in pairs,

it looks like the saddle bags of a horse.

Caciocavallo is a cheese that typically comes

from Southern Italy.

[water drips] [soft percussive music]

This is about five pounds of curd.

So caciocavallo is typically a larger cheese than provola.

The technique for making caciocavallo

is very similar to the fior di latte.

In this case, I'll be making a large ball.

[water drips]

The key is I just wanna make sure

that it is closed on the bottom.

[water laps]

I'll use the remainder of the curds to make scamorza.

Scamorza is typically smaller than provola or caciocavallo.

Scamorza is a cheese that you would most often find

in the regions in and around Naples

and will often be smoked.

Because these cheeses are very young

and very mild in flavor,

Italians prefer to smoke over hay as opposed to hardwoods,

giving a very subtle smokey flavor to the cheese.

The technique I'm using for this is very similar

to the provola in that I'm allowing the cheese

to shape under its own weight, however,

instead of allowing the cheese to come to a point and seal,

making a money bag, if you will

and using my thumb at the top

of the cheese to create a seal.

The importance of shaping not only contributes

to the aging process but also determines the method

in which we tie or hang the cheese in the cave.

For provola, I'm going to tie all sides of the cheese

to give structure and support to the cheese

as it hangs in the cave.

Because this is a larger format cheese, I want to make sure

that it has good support on all four sides.

I'm using a traditional natural fiber twine.

For provola, I like to leave it in salamoia

for about 30 minutes per pound.

Instead of tying, I'm gonna place the caciocavallo in a net.

So that the scamorza does not break apart

in the aging process, I always wanna make sure

that I don't tie the string too tight

and that I leave a nice thick neck

around the top to work with.

Here are our finished aged cheeses ready for the cave.

And finally, here are all the cheeses I made for you today.

[up-tempo hand drum music]