Scamorza

Just like a good number of delicious foods, scamorza was created by accident. Legend has it that a dairy worker left the curd for caciocavallo cheese out for so long that it turned sour. To avoid losing the curd, he dipped it into scalding water to get rid of the acidity so that the cheese could be eaten. The result is what we now call scamorza, a cheese tangier than caciocavallo and higher in water content.

A plastic-curd cheese, scamorza tastes like a cross between caciocavallo and mozzarella, and is aged for a very brief period—from six days to a maximum of fifteen days. Southern Italy produces most of the scamorza that is on the market, in two kinds—normal or smoked. Scamorza looks like an antique money bag: it is hung to smoke until its skin is light brown and the flesh has taken on a woodsy, smoked aroma. The way to distinguish between the two kinds is by the skin color, and the slightly rounder shape of the smoked type. Scamorza tastes great melted on pizza, focaccia, or grilled vegetables (fresh scamorza melts better and more uniformly than the smoked kind). It is also lovely savored fresh with crisp bread, cubed in pasta or rice salads, with sliced prosciutto, mixed into warm pasta dishes like the famous pasta ai quattro formaggi, and in frittatas. Scamorza pairs perfectly with white wines like Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino.