I’ve been on a pizza bender. Those little balls of dough call to me from the freezer almost nightly, crying out to be topped with asparagus and mushrooms or roasted garlic and goat cheese. And since last week, I think they know that there’s a jar of Jersey Fresh tomatoes sitting in the fridge, waiting to be spooned and swirled. (I haven’t even bothered to make sauce this time; the tomatoes are so good that they work on their own. The sweetness of the raw pulp is actually lovely.)
I love creative toppings, but sometimes those tomatoes and thin slabs of fresh mozzarella are all you really need. Last week, I was asking at the Fair Food Farmstand about the dearth of local fresh mozzarella, made with locally-produced, grass-fed milk. They said there were some local producers “working on it.”
Then, Sunday at Headhouse, I stopped by Hillacres Pride Farms’ booth, looking to get a few more of the tiny lamb chops that had brought me so much pleasure on a low-key evening last week. To my delight and surprise, they were also selling balls of fresh mozzarella, made with their grass-fed milk. According to their website: “This year we have built a new facility and installed a pasteurizer and will be adding feta, mozzarella, ricotta and fromage.”
The cheese was not the crisp white I’m used to—instead it had a creamy color. The taste was salty and rich—a perfect foil to those tart tomatoes. The texture was also a bit denser than I’m used to—but, hey, they’re still new at this.
Word is that Hillacres Pride’s fresh mozzarella might be coming soon to a Fair Food Farmstand near you.
Titanium Dioxide whitens mozzarella cheese; let’s hope Hillacres Pride keeps making "yellow" cheese!
The cheese will be dense if they do not add water!!!! You don’t want to pay for water, do you?
Dense makes for a longer shelf life too.