Tomatoes and Mozzarella

It's finally here. We have been waiting a long time, since March, for this moment. This is the time I look forward to every summer. This is why we grow a garden in our backyard. It's time. Time, to harvest the tomatoes. Look at them!

Since starting our garden we have grown heirloom varieties. I'm still learning, and I don't know all their names, but we have heirloom tomatoes and heirloom paste tomatoes - the best for making sauce - in our tomato raised bed.

The plants are heavily weighed down with tomato fruit, and everyday there are ripe tomatoes to harvest. This Satruday will be the first of an upcoming few where we spend all day processing tomatoes for canning. Those paste tomatoes will turn into puree, sauce, salsa and ketchup. The colourful heirlooms will be used for fresh pasta, pizza and Caprese salads - one of my favourites.

Caprese salad, or Insalata caprese, is so delicious because it is so simple. Only worth eating when all of the ingredients are in season, it's the freshness and ripeness of the tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella coming together that creates a taste experience worth revisiting. It's true that what grows together goes together, and we know basil and tomato are best friends. Their second best friend, mozzarella, is best when it's fresh - no rubbery yellow cheese balls, please - and worth trying to make yourself.

In the August/September issue of PEARL magazine I write about St. Veronus Cafe and Taproom's new menu and their homemade fresh mozzarella cheese. Chef Susan Houde flavours her mozzarella with Affligem beer and seasonal ingredients to create a seasonally evolving salad, a staple of the menu. She shared her recipe with me, and I'm going to include it here.

Now, I have tried making mozzarella and I wasn't as successful as Susan. Rennet and citric acid (this is a powder) are essential to successful mozza. From experience, you cannot replace the citric acid with lemon juice.

You can find citric acid at health food stores (Joanne's or the Main Ingredient in Peterborough carry it). I purchased my rennet from the Empire Cheese vendor at the Saturday Peterborough Farmer's Market. He looked at me like I was crazy - why on earth would I want to make my own cheese? After making some successful fresh ricotta cheese I can tell you that it is very, very, very rewarding. That is why you should make your own cheese.

Susan told me that while there are many steps to making mozza, it's actually fairly simple. What's important to remember is that once the ingredients have come to the right temperature, and you're ready to start working the mozzarella, things happen very fast. Read the recipe a few times so that you have a good grasp of how and when you need to jump to action. You need to stretch and play with the curds in order for them to come together into mozzarella. The curds need to be warm for this. Susan has said that this stage just takes practice - the more you do it, the more you recognize how the curds should feel before being shaped into the mozzarella.

You will need:
Stainless steel pot
Candy thermometer
Bottled/filtered water
Cheesecloth and strainer or colander
Wooden spoon
Knife

Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
This recipe is designed to make a large batch for a restaurant's use. You will want to reduce the measurements quite a bit if you're just making it for your Insalata caprese or pizza margharita

12 L homo milk
2 tsp citric acid
1 tsp rennet mixed with 2 cups bottled water

1. Pour the milk into a stainless steel pot
2. Heat, stirring, to 80 degrees Fahrenheit
3. Add citric acid, continue to heat to 90 degrees Fahrenheit
4. Once temperature is reached, turn the burner off
5. Add rennet, stir and leave to curdle (about 20 minutes for this large batch)
6. Cut into the curds making a criss-cross pattern
7. Heat curd mixture on high for 10 minutes
8. Strain mixture into a strainer or colander lined with cheesecloth set over a pot. This will allow the whey to drain from the curd. Reserve whey.
9. Press curds (in cheesecloth and colander) to remove moisture
10. Heat the whey (which has been reserved in the pot), to 165 degrees Fahrenheit
11. Add the curd back into the whey for a few seconds to reheat the curd - it must be warm to stretch
12. Stretch and shape the curd, pulling it and pinching it into a ball
13. Store the mozzarella ball in cold water and salt, or, like they do at St. Veronus, in some beer

Alternatively, you can purchase some lovely Buffalo mozzarella at Chasing The Cheese on Water Street. I spent some time with Jacquie Mellor, an employee of Chasing The Cheese, and she gave me some great tips on composing a cheeseboard. I won't overload you with them now, but watch for them in my next post.

Good eating!