We are the homeland of the mozzarella. And this is not discussed. Yet among the 299 Italian excellence food products protected by one of the two most severe indications geographical references (ie Dop and Igp) so far only one appeared: the Mozzarella di Buffalo Dop bell But now it is ready to expose the Dop sticker also the Mozzarella from Gioia del Colle, whose application for registration was published on Official Journal European. If there will be no opposition, the 2020 will open with the official assignment of the Dop. But what is special about this mozzarella cheese?
Apulian excellence
The characteristics of the Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop are all reported in disciplinary deposited at EU and to which all companies that want to produce and sell this must attend product. First requirement: the exclusive use of cow milk full raw, eventually thermised or pasteurized, and coming from two different milkings of cows that live at the pasture at least 150 days and who are fed for at least the 60% with grass and hay of grass and up to 40% with carobs and by-products of cereal processing, such as bran and cruschello of soft wheat. The characterization is also essential "Autochthonous" of the "food" intended for cows: not less than 60% must be local. The link with the land in which it was born and the characterization of Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop we also owe to another important factor: the milk is all collected and processed in a precise area, which corresponds to Murgia Bari and Taranto. Also the packaging of the mozzarella must take place in this area, which includes about twenty municipalities in the provinces of Taranto and Bari and a part of the province of Matera.
Flavors and aromas of Murgia in a cheese
In the Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop the use of preservatives and additives or adjuvants, including selected lactic ferments or citric acid, is not permitted. In addition to milk the only others "Ingredients" used are the calf rennet and the native serum-grafting, deriving from previous work carried out in the same company or in the territory, and obtained by allowing the development under controlled conditions present microflora naturally in the serum remaining from the processing of milk from the previous day. This heritage of native microflore gives the Gioia del Colle Dop Mozzarella many of its details features, particularly intense in the cheese just produced, including the scent of milk, the pleasantly sour taste, with nuances of fermented, due to the presence in the mozzarella of lactobacilli is lactococci. Also the technique of processing milk into fine pasta filata it is recorded in every detail: the milk is processed within 48 hours from the first milking, the spinning must be carried out with hot water and salt, at least 85 ° C, and the soft and warm dough must be knotted with a single one, fast movement of the hands, born from the skill developed by generations of cheesemakers.
A mozzarella that amazes the palate
How to recognize the Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop? From the indications in label and the presence on the packaging of protection logo and the Dop label. The Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop is made in three different forms (ball, knot and braid), with a weight that varies from 50 grams to a kg. It is marketed immersed in a liquid of governance consisting of water, possibly acidulated and salt. Once removed from the packages, it is characterized by the white surface and shiny, smooth or slightly fibrous. The dough is elastic and, at the time of cut, presents a slight spill of white serum. To the taste the Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle Dop is characterized by the scent of milk or yogurt, sometimes with hints of butter, and the taste of milk delicately acidulous, with a pleasant fermented aftertaste, more intense in that just brewed.
Manuela Soressi
November 2019