What is Stretched-Curd Cheese?

Pasta filata (stretched-curd) refers to a family of fresh cheeses obtained by heating milk curds and stretching them, commonly grouped under the name mozzarella.

These include cow and buffalo milk mozzarella, stracciatella and burrata, as well as smoked and semi-aged variations like scamorza and caciocavallo.

The production process rests on five pillars.

Milk pasteurisation is a common first step for any dairy, but pasta filata requires fresh consideration for temperature and duration.

Next, we choose from a number of methods to coagulate the milk, in order to separate the curds from the whey.

The curds are then mixed with hot water and salt, stretched at a high temperature then formed into mozzarella balls.

The resulting product can then be put into water and sold as fresh cheese, but also aged (caciocavallo) or smoked (scamorza).