Here is her homemade version of making stracciatella cheese. Good luck :)
"To make her cheese, Ms. Caputo starts with high-butterfat milk from local grass-fed cows. She ferments the milk for eight hours, before adding a coagulator, rennet. The curds are then stretched into cheese or frozen, which pauses the cheesemaking process so that chefs and home cooks can stretch their own and eat it as many Italians do, the same day it is stretched.
Ms. Caputo’s pitch has been an easy sell. In New York, Murray’s Cheese picked up the product three months after Caputo Brothers began; Saxelby Cheesemongers sells the curds in-store and online, and offers cheese-stretching demonstrations for customers.
Under Ms. Caputo’s tutelage, some of New York’s top kitchens have found that making stracciatella is easy and economical: After meeting with her last month, Matt Abdoo, the chef de cuisine of Del Posto, stopped importing burrata from Italy and now makes stracciatella to serve with his summer heirloom tomato salad. Telepan has replaced burrata with house-made stracciatella. And The Dutch is serving stracciatella with stone fruit and corn bread croutons.
“There is this tang in her cheese that is just like what you find in Italy,” said Jonathan Benno, the executive chef at Lincoln, who is serving sweet corn agnolotti with stracciatella and summer truffles. “The extra step of fermentation produces something that is very, very special.”
Making stracciatella at home takes about 15 minutes. Thaw the curds in the refrigerator overnight, then break them into small nickel- or dime-size pieces and season with kosher salt, about one tablespoon for each pound of curds. Next, heat water to 180 degrees in a pot or electric kettle and pour it over the curds until they are just covered. Using a wooden spoon, lift the curds and let them fall — or stretch — back into the water. After three to five minutes, when the curds are smooth, shiny and supple, they are ready to be shaped.
Holding the curds in one hand, let them fall into a long rope. Use the other hand to pull the curds apart into thin strands, and place them in a bowl or container of heavy cream. Good cream is important; Ms. Caputo recommends low-temperature pasteurized cream with at least 35 percent butterfat. Ultrapasteurized cream has a flat flavor and will smother the vibrant taste of the curds.
These days, I like to use stracciatella in any dish that calls for fresh mozzarella. The creaminess pairs beautifully with tomatoes. But it is as delicious with roasted peppers or grilled peaches and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Stracciatella also melts like a dream: perfect for pizza or a standout cheeseburger."
Or you could just eat it right out of the container with a spoon.
Caputo Brothers stracciatella is $12.99 a pound at Murray’s Cheese Shop, 254 Bleecker Street (between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue). Saxelby Cheesemongers sells it for $16.99 a pound at its shop in the Essex Street Market, 120 Essex Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), and $24.99 a pound, with shipping, at saxelbycheese.com.
Rynn Caputo will teach a class on “Mozzarella and More,” which includes stracciatella, at Murray’s Cheese Shop on Aug. 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cost is $100; murrayscheese.com/edu_classcalendar.asp.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/dining/a-mozzarella-treat-to-make-at-home.html
Here is her homemade version of making stracciatella cheese. Good luck :)
"To make her cheese, Ms. Caputo starts with high-butterfat milk from local grass-fed cows. She ferments the milk for eight hours, before adding a coagulator, rennet. The curds are then stretched into cheese or frozen, which pauses the cheesemaking process so that chefs and home cooks can stretch their own and eat it as many Italians do, the same day it is stretched.
Ms. Caputo’s pitch has been an easy sell. In New York, Murray’s Cheese picked up the product three months after Caputo Brothers began; Saxelby Cheesemongers sells the curds in-store and online, and offers cheese-stretching demonstrations for customers.
Under Ms. Caputo’s tutelage, some of New York’s top kitchens have found that making stracciatella is easy and economical: After meeting with her last month, Matt Abdoo, the chef de cuisine of Del Posto, stopped importing burrata from Italy and now makes stracciatella to serve with his summer heirloom tomato salad. Telepan has replaced burrata with house-made stracciatella. And The Dutch is serving stracciatella with stone fruit and corn bread croutons.
“There is this tang in her cheese that is just like what you find in Italy,” said Jonathan Benno, the executive chef at Lincoln, who is serving sweet corn agnolotti with stracciatella and summer truffles. “The extra step of fermentation produces something that is very, very special.”
Making stracciatella at home takes about 15 minutes. Thaw the curds in the refrigerator overnight, then break them into small nickel- or dime-size pieces and season with kosher salt, about one tablespoon for each pound of curds. Next, heat water to 180 degrees in a pot or electric kettle and pour it over the curds until they are just covered. Using a wooden spoon, lift the curds and let them fall — or stretch — back into the water. After three to five minutes, when the curds are smooth, shiny and supple, they are ready to be shaped.
Holding the curds in one hand, let them fall into a long rope. Use the other hand to pull the curds apart into thin strands, and place them in a bowl or container of heavy cream. Good cream is important; Ms. Caputo recommends low-temperature pasteurized cream with at least 35 percent butterfat. Ultrapasteurized cream has a flat flavor and will smother the vibrant taste of the curds.
These days, I like to use stracciatella in any dish that calls for fresh mozzarella. The creaminess pairs beautifully with tomatoes. But it is as delicious with roasted peppers or grilled peaches and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Stracciatella also melts like a dream: perfect for pizza or a standout cheeseburger."
Or you could just eat it right out of the container with a spoon.
Caputo Brothers stracciatella is $12.99 a pound at Murray’s Cheese Shop, 254 Bleecker Street (between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue). Saxelby Cheesemongers sells it for $16.99 a pound at its shop in the Essex Street Market, 120 Essex Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), and $24.99 a pound, with shipping, at saxelbycheese.com.
Rynn Caputo will teach a class on “Mozzarella and More,” which includes stracciatella, at Murray’s Cheese Shop on Aug. 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cost is $100; murrayscheese.com/edu_classcalendar.asp.