Its traditional area of production is Central-Southern Italy and extends  from the primitive mountainous region of Abruzzo, and passes south of Rome to the Pontine plain, which is a flat strip of land traversed by the ancient Via Appia, once nothing but a desolate and unhealthy swamp. In early times, it was ridden with malaria, but during Fascism the area was reclaimed and is now one of the most fertile districts in all Italy.

Continuing on south towards Naples, one approaches the heart-land of buffalo-milk mozzarella, that is the countryside around Capua and Caserta.

For Italians, buffaloes are imaginary beasts, quadrupeds that died out with the evolution of the bovine species. The few surviving specimens are raised in reservations, like the American buffalo. But this is not the case. In the country around Capua and Caserta, there are buffaloes by the thousands, and their number keeps growing for they represent an excellent investment. Buffalo milk costs three times as much as cow's milk, the mozzarella market is going strong and buffaloes are wild animals that live out in the open without need for shelter and eat almost anything they find.

They once ran wild over the whole region, content to live in the noxious bogs of the swamps. Some of the locals remember seeing them also in the neighboring mountains, but they were leaner than the ones on the plain, as if the rocky habitat were less congenial to them. Peasants in the district soon realized that buffaloes gave a very special quality of milk, perfect for making cheese, and started taming the animals and producing the first primitive form of mozzarella. Today, countless farms are to be found in the district where buffaloes are raised in fenced-off fields. Buffaloes live an average of 15 to 20 years and the females give birth to one calf a year. Each female gives a minimum of two gallons of milk a day.

Buffalo milk is not for drinking and is used exclusively for making mozzarella. Indeed, it is so nutritious and so rich in fat and cassein that it would be indigestible over the breakfast table, whereas it is the best for the cheese industry. Cow's-milk mozzarella is a ball of fresh cheese swimming in brine, pleasant as ice cream but absolutely tasteless. Made out of buffalo milk, instead, it becomes an altogether different matter. By visiting one of the many small dairies scattered over the district between Caserta and Salerno, you can see the way mozzarella is made, which is a very fast process. The milk is brought in, curdled, then drained to eliminate the whey. After this the curd is cut into small pieces, then ground up in a sort of primitive mill. At this point, reduced to crumbles, the curd is put into a mold and immersed in hot water, where it is stirred until it takes on a rubbery texture. The cheesemaker kneads it with his hands, like a baker making bread, until he obtains a smooth, shiny paste, a strand of which he pulls out and lops off, forming the individual mozzarella ("mozzare" in Italian in fact means to lop off). These in turn are put into cold water and then to soak in brine. The cheese absorbs as much salt as is necessary and has to take on consistency. In the end, it must not be soft and mushy when cut but fibrous and elastic, so that if poked it springs back to its original shape. Mozzarella, prepared in the evening is ready the next morning, oozing with freshness and richly flavored.

Buffalo-milk mozzarella unfortunately has a very limited life span: it should be eaten the same day or at most within two days. For this reason, only the people who live in the local area or in the immediate vicinity succeed in enjoying it at the right moment.

To deal with the ever-increasing market demands, the production of mozzarella has grown constantly over the years. By now, this cheese, unique of its kind, has become an essential ingredient of a whole vast range of Italian recipes, from pizza, now popular all over the world, to pasta and meat and vegetables dishes. Wherever it is put, it succeeds in adding that extra touch of freshness and novelty. So at a certain moment, the need was felt to have a product that assured greater durability and was less conditioned by environmental and zoological factors of the production area. This gave rise to fiordilatte (literally flower, or best part of milk), which is simply mozzarella made out of cow's milk. Fiordilatte is more delicate in flavor than mozzarella. This is because cow's milk, compared to buffalo milk, is, as it were, watered down. In exchange, it has the great advantage of being highly digestible and, thanks to very advanced production techniques, may be preserved much longer than buffalo mozzarella. Many of the big Italian cheese companies today devote a part of their production to fiordilatte, which has turned into an interregional product that can be found more or less everywhere.

Speed in collecting and processing the milk is essential to successful results in fiordilatte. In this respect, several experiments have been made. One of the foremost producers tried making it with German milk which theoretically should give better results, given the greater quantities of fat and protein. But because of the jolting around and the length of the trip (around 3 days) this milk produced terrible fiordilatte and the old methods were resumed.

Mozzarella should be eaten at room temperature, so remenber to take it out of the refrigerator two hours before serving, to give the particles of fat time to regain their natural elasticity and the cheese to become soft and fragrant again. 100 grams (31/2 oz.) of mozzarella equal roughly 250 calories, so it can be eaten with no problems, even if you're on a diet.

In the summer months, serve it with fresh tomatoes and basilico, or if you prefer something less light, prepare a delicious "mozzarella in carozza" (mozzarella in a carriage) or "crostini" (toasted bread) with mozzarella and anchovies, so easy to make and so popular with family and friends. In other words, put it everywhere, not forgetting what Brillat Savarian used to say: "A meal without cheese is like a pretty woman without an eye."