Cheese for Pizza


 
S

Steve Petrone

TVWBB Diamond Member
Uninformed as I am, I used some sliced provolone for pizza. Everybody was happy. Then I visited a neighborhood fresh pasta store...I tried their shredded mozzarella. WOW! What a difference. My son really noticed. Now I need to understand a little about aged-grated or shreaded mozz for pizza. Anybody care to weigh in.

Quality ingredients do make a difference.
 
Steve, good thread. It should get a lot of responses.

I use whole milk, part-skim or fresh mozzarella, depending on the need at the time. I often mix cheeses. Fresh mozzarella and buffalo mozzarella are lovely but can be a little wet. Whole milk is next, and part-skim does the job if one must watch fat and calories.

Fresh mozzarella is often just sliced into rounds and added to pizza. For the block mozzarella, I usually dice it into 1/2-inch cubes and scatter it over the pizza. It melts into small puddles. IMO, shredded cheese can get a little tough in a really hot oven, especially the part-skim type.

Pizza Marinara is good too. It has no cheese, just marinara sauce, and you can add vegetables, olives, etc. as desired. Grilled eggplant and peppers is a favorite of ours. Mushrooms too.

I like almost any kind of pizza, classic, white, or gourmet. Jack is more of a traditionalist and prefers red sauce on his.

If you want to get some ideas for interesting vegetarian pizza combos, there is The Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley that publishes its Pizza of the Day on a weekly basis. Reinhart writes about them in his Pizza book:

http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/Pizza%20Collective/z.htm

Rita
 
I only occasionally use mozz as it's just too bland for me. When I do it's not much and used with other, more flavorful cheese(s) as a textural thing. Still, the total cheese I use is probably around one-third of the cheese found on a typical American pizza, at most.
 
Good point, Kevin. Can you be more specific about which cheeses you like to blend with other topping ingredients?

I usually use about 1.5 oz cheese for an individual pizza for family (everyday) and about 2.0 oz for an individual pizza (a little larger) for company. Sometimes less, depending on other topping ingredients. As with a Neopolitan-style pizza, it's all about the crust.

Rita
 
I sometimes use fresh mozz with sliced or diced tomatoes and fresh herbs (I'll include parm or asiago here too). I like Parrano with mushrooms, and with white sauces; goat with white sauces and smoked or roasted or grilled poultry; feta or Mahon with smoked, grilled or roasted vegs, especially roasted red bells and/or olives; Fontina with roasted vegs and roasted meats, especially poultry, and/or olives; parm, asiago or romano with white sauce and duck or sausage (though I do not often make pizza with red meats). If I make a mix of these ingredients I'll often make a mix of the cheeses, duck with mushrooms, white sauce, asiago and Parrano, say, or smoked tomato with roasted peppers, olives, Mahon and a little feta.
 
Kevin, Woo Hoo! This is a most helpful guideline indeed. It's been a while since I made pizza. This will spur me on. Steve, this should help answer your question too.
 
Great thread. I too have searched high and low for a good cheese to use for pizza (incidentally, I actually used the same cheese the cheeseboard does for my pizza...I just asked them which mozz it was and went next door to their cheese collective and bought it).

Surpirsingly, the best one I've used is a pre-shredded part skim store brand available out here called "goldrush". It melts down to an almost creamy consistency and doesn't pull off in one sheet when you take a bite.

And Steve, you've got to try a sourdough crust!
 
Phil...so much good food to be prepared...so little time...My wife does sourdough bread but restarts it frequently, I'll have to learn how to keep it alive!
 
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