Puglia Cheese

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Created on Thursday, 09 August 2012 15:55

Gli italiani sono in Sud Africa da lungo tempo e hanno avuto nella storia di questo paese un ruolo molto significativo. Pur senza disturbare i personaggi che fanno capolino nella storia di questo paese prima della fine dell'Ottocento, resta essenziale il contributo che i nostri connazionali hanno dato al progresso del moderno Sud Africa, costruendo linee elettriche e ferroviarie, strade, ponti, gallerie, passi di montagna, case, palazzi, alberghi, stazioni ferroviarie, pontili, fabbriche e via dicendo. Grandi e piccole imprese hanno contribuito a fare del Sud Africa uno dei paesi più avanzati del mondo. Ma non è di questo contributo che oggi vogliamo parlare, bensì di quanto il Sud Africa sia debitore verso gli italiani di tante piccole cose che oggi tutti danno per scontate ma che non fanno parte del suo patrimonio genetico originario.

Lasciamo da parte il teatro dell'opera e gli italiani che lo hanno fatto nascere e crescere per concentrarci invece sull'evoluzione del gusto sudafricano a tavola. Ancora meno di cinquant'anni fa, se si cercava di comprare un litro di olio d'oliva, benché i liguri fratelli Costa l'avessero introdotto e lo producessero al Capo già dai primi del Novecento, ci si sentiva rispondere: "Provi in farmacia". E chi aveva mai sentito parlare del pesto in questo paese che sembrava vivere quasi esclusivamente di "braai"? Perfino gli zucchini erano ancora oggetti misteriosi, così come lo sono tuttora finocchi e carciofi. Ancora negli anni settanta trovare una pizza decente era un'impresa.

Oggi, invece, ci sono forse più pizzerie in Sud Africa che in Italia, anche se molte sfornano pizze che di italiano non hanno quasi niente. Forse l'unica cosa in comune è proprio la mozzarella, che però qualche volta sa più di stoppa che di latticino, a seconda dell'etichetta.

Ecco: la mozzarella, con l'olio d'oliva e il pesto, potrebbe essere l'emblema della "colonizzazione" italiana del Sud Africa nel campo dell'alimentazione. Ricordo che una decina di anni fa, arrivando con colleghi della Rai a Orania, nel Northern Cape, per un servizio sull'ultimo avamposto della cultura boera, la proprietaria dell'unico alberghetto del villaggio ci fece trovare per cena una pizza a testa, che con grande spirito di sacrificio, per non deluderla, ci sforzammo di mandare giù, sorpresi e divertiti dall'aver scoperto come anche i più irriducibili difensori delle tradizioni afrikaans si fossero arresi al gusto italiano.

La mozzarella, così come il provolone, il caciocavallo, il pecorino e diversi altri formaggi tipici italiani, sono oggi prodotti quasi ovunque in Sud Africa, oltre che dai grandi caseifici, fra cui Parmalat, anche da diversi piccoli e grandi casari italiani, dai Bandini ai Cremona, a Zandam, a tanti altri più o meno noti. Marchi come La Campania sono noti in tutto il paese, anche se fra gli italiani del Gauteng nessuno ha ancora oscurato la fama di Tonino "Mozzarella" Abbatemarco.

L'evoluzione dei prodotti è stata costante e oggi si riescono a trovare quasi ovunque mozzarelle e caciotte che, pur non potendo ancora competere con quelle di bufala, reggono comunque bene il confronto con quelle che si vendono nei negozi di latticini in Italia.

Il che vuol dire che ci vuole qualcosa di veramente speciale per guadagnarsi la fama che i prodotti di Puglia Cheese hanno acquisito in poco più di due anni da quando sono comparsi sul mercato, prima a Città del Capo e poi piano piano anche a Johannesburg e in altre città e

cittadine.

Protagonisti di questa storia di successo, così come i pionieri che hanno introdotto i formaggi italiani in questo paese, sono due avventurosi italiani arrivati in questo paese nel 2010 senza sapere esattamente cosa avrebbero fatto da grandi e un loro amico che li ha poi raggiunti con il suo bagaglio di esperienze e conoscenze nella produzione dei tipici formaggi pugliesi. Si chiamano Davide Ostuni, Fabio Fatelli e Cosimo Rotolo. Puglia Cheese è la loro creatura.

Davide era emigrato da ragazzo in Inghilterra, ma negli anni novanta, poco più che ventenne, era approdato a Città del Capo al seguito di una fidanzata sudafricana, si era per qualche anno guadagnato da vivere facendo il modello, ma nel 1994, non essendo residente, era stato costretto a tornare in Europa con una moglie sudafricana di nome Ursula che non era la ragazza con la quale aveva fatto il viaggio di andata. Nel 2010 la decisione di tornare in Sud Africa, questa volta anche con due figli e gli amici Fabio e Cosimo, vogliosi di cimentarsi insieme a lui nell'impresa di far conoscere ai sudafricani i veri sapori della cucina pugliese.

Le prime mozzarelle vennero al mondo in un caseificio artigianale di Montague Gardens nel quale Cosimo doveva arrangiarsi a utilizzare un pentolone che conteneva 50 litri di latte sistemato su un fornello da cucina. La difficoltà maggiore fu però quella di trovare il latte con le caratteristiche organolettiche ideali, in un paese che privilegia alti contenuti di grassi, mentre la mozzarella ha bisogno di materia prima relativamente magra. Individuati alcuni produttori disposti a fornire il latte di mucche selezionate per soddisfare le loro necessità, la bravura del casaro e le esperienze pregresse di Davide e Fabio nella commercializzazione dei prodotti hanno dato vita al fenomeno Puglia Cheese. Oggi il caseificio è in un grande fabbricato dell'azienda vinicola Zevenwacth,

su una collina fra Stellenbosch e l'aeroporto di Città del Capo dalla cui sommità si vedono il mare della Falsa Baia e il centro balneare di Strand, nonché la massa rassicurante di Table Mountain. Qui nascono formaggi che non hanno nulla da invidiare a quelli italiani. Anzi, in alcuni casi le materie prime e il risultato finale sono anche migliori. Non per niente l'anno scorso Puglia Cheese ha conquistato fra l'altro il titolo di Campione del Sud Africa e il Qualité Award, ripetendo entrambi i successi quest'anno e aggiungendo la medaglia di bronzo del World Cheese Award per la burrata, che è senza dubbio il loro cavallo di battaglia.

In un tempo incredibilmente breve i formaggi di Puglia Cheese sono stati adottati da negozi di prodotti alimentari, ristoranti e pizzerie di buona reputazione e dalle aziende vinicole che offrono ai turisti la possibilità di accompagnare gli assaggi di vini con quelli di formaggi. E a Città del Capo, in Kloof Street, il "Mozzarella Bar" è diventato un posto alla moda soprattutto grazie alla bontà dei formaggi pugliesi.

Una storia di successo, dunque? Sì, senza dubbio, ma anche una nuova pagina della storia dell'imprenditoria italiana in Sud Africa e nel mondo, a testimoniare come gli italiani all'estero, oggi come un secolo fa, sono persone speciali. Quelle persone che, secondo una ricercatrice americana che abbiamo incontrato qualche anno fa, hanno un gene raro che li spinge ad affrontare l'ignoto e le grandi distanze per poter realizzare i propri sogni. Proprio come Davide, Fabio e Cosimo.

Qui di seguito un paio di articoli che sono stati dedicati a Puglia Cheese e ai suoi tre protagonisti da pubblicazioni sudafricane:

Three Italian friends from Puglia, who make mozzarella in Cape Town, told Russell Wasserfall why winning a South African award made them cry - timeslive

When it was announced that Puglia Cheese had won four prizes, including two category winners, at the South African Dairy Championships in April this year, Davide Ostuni did what any self-respecting Italian man would do. He cried like a baby. He and his friends, Fabio Fatelli and Cosimo Rotolo, stood hugging each other, laughing and crying at once.

These three very different characters from Puglia, in the heel of Italy, have come together to make mozzarella in Cape Town. Ostuni is the expansive one, full of stories about the old country, the love of food, learning to cook at his mother's knee. Fatelli, though more reserved at first, is the joker, and their little factory in Montague Gardens is a joyful place to be. Rotolo, the master cheese-maker, is the quiet one who just gets on with things in the background.

Ostuni, who began visiting Cape Town on holiday in 1991, was the catalyst. He met Ursula in South Africa, married her and took her back to Italy. Her longing for home and his love of Cape Town ignited their madcap idea to move from Puglia to Africa and start a cheese business. Why? Because they could not find mozzarella to suit their taste in South Africa.

"Italians have cheese with everything," says Ostuni. "People think it's only pasta, but we eat mozzarella like that, too. Here, the only mozzarella you could find was like tennis balls."

So he phoned the old country. As you do. One call was to Fatelli, a restaurateur friend from a neighbouring village in Puglia. The other was to Rotolo, a master cheese-maker with a formidable reputation, even in a region which claims to make the best mozzarella in Italy. It is testimony to Ostuni's passion and his magnetism that both his friends boarded planes and came to see what he was on about.

"In Europe, everything is done. Everything has been tried," says Ostuni. "Here, things are evolving and people are ready for new things. When I was first here in the 1990s, you couldn't get an espresso. Now there are espresso bars. There's so much you can do."

Fatelli cuts in: "We were crazy. No market research. We just look at the milk. Test to see if it is okay. Then we go!"

Driven by the desire to succeed and by the sense of wild adventure they felt in leaving Europe, the partners found two small dairies in the Boland providing Ayrshire and Friesland milk and started cooking it in a 50-litre pot.

Rotolo's hand-pulled cheese comes in many forms, from the traditional fior di latte ("flower of milk") to nodini ("little knots") and the less familiar - to South Africans at least - burrata (balls of mozzarella filled with tender cheese soaked in double cream). He has also created a new cheese in honour of the trio's new home. Called primo fiore ("first flower"), it is a creamy caciotta cheese that marries well with South African wines.

Once the Italian restaurants found them, Puglia Cheese was in demand. And that is the story of how Fatelli, Rotolo and Ostuni found themselves crying and being slapped on the back by the finest cheese-makers in South Africa. Makes you wonder how a melktert bakery would do in southern Italy.

In a flash:

Who is your biggest food influence? Although she is not with us anymore, it is still my mother.

What is your earliest food memory? Dropping an egg while my mother was teaching me how to crack it open. I was holding it as if my life depended on it, and I was heartbroken when I saw it splattered on the floor.

Do you feel guilty about coming to South Africa and stealing one of our women for your wife? No! She was the lucky one!

What could you not make cheese without? Passion.

The strangest food you've eaten in South Africa? Pizza with bacon and banana.

Are Italian drivers really worse than Cape Town drivers? Absolutely.

True blooded Italians bring real mozzarella to South Africa

Davide and Fabio, who were both born in Italy, are seasoned professionals of the catering industry and passionate lovers and critics of the Italian cuisine. In true Italian style, their dinner-parties are not complete without a healthy debate over the meal prepared and the historic origins of the ingredients used. So after moving to South Africa in 2010, a food-related new business venture was the obvious choice; the question was simply: what?
They soon discovered a need for truly authentic Italian ingredients in South Africa. In Italian culture, fresh mozzarella forms an integral part of almost all dishes; from starters, to pastas, pizzas and risottos. But the “mozzarella” Davide and Fabio found in Cape Town was not the true Italian breed - which is white, moist and soft (and doesn’t become like plastic on cold pizza!). So the team convinced another friend, and mozzarella maestro Cosimo Rotolo, to join them in Cape Town. Puglia Cheese was born.

The low-down on mozzarella

Mozzarella is a fresh cheese, first recorded in 1570 in the cookbook of a renowned chef and cook to the papal court, Bartolomeo Scappi. There are still disagreements today about its origins - either from the South of Italy or Central Italy with the introduction of the Asian Buffalo – but it may have been invented as far back as 6000 BC by Asian nomadic tribes.

There are two types of mozzarella: made from cow’s milk and buffalo milk. Buffalo mozzarella is much richer in taste, and more arduous to work with. In Italy it is a delicacy, with only one kilogram being produced for every ten kilograms of cow mozzarella. Davide explains that neither one is better than the other, it is merely a matter of taste “like the difference between your mothers bolognaise and my mothers bolognaise”. To get the best buffalo mozzarella, he says, one would need to travel to a particular region of south-east Italy.

The process of making mozzarella is a delicate one: the properties of the raw cow's milk vary vastly depending on what type of grass the cows are eating and other environmental conditions. White milk with the right levels of acidity is needed in order to ensure top quality mozzarella. And Puglia Cheese insists on the highest quality of milk so that they don’t have to introduce any additives. The milk is currently sourced from a wide range of farms, but they are hoping to develop a good relationship with some small farms that will enable them to prescribe the conditions that will produce the best milk for their cheese.

Less is more
Puglia Cheese is artisanal; maestro Cosimo makes it by hand, which means they produce less cheese but it allows for a higher variety of shapes, such as the nodini (‘little knots’) and the burrata (a mozzarella ball filled with soft ripped mozzarella soaked in double cream). He also makes the traditional mozzarella balls – Fior de latte – as well as caciovalla and scamorsa types (amongst others). To honour the traditions of South Italian villages, Puglia Cheese has also produced its unique caciotta cheese, in honour of its new host country. They have named her Primo Fiore, the 'First flower' - a soft, creamy cheese that  leaves a milky aftertaste perfect for blending with preserves or jelly and a dry Chardonnay.

Only seven months in and the business is expanding really quickly – many of the top-rated restaurants and delis in Cape Town are Puglia Cheese customers and the list is growing. Part of their mission involves educating South African’s about mozzarella and their other cheeses, and they provide some great recipes on their website. They also invite customers to submit their own recipes on their Facebook page.

Davide and Fabio will soon be producing other Italian food products, such as sun-dried tomatoes, to add to their repertoire. So there is much to look forward to!

Locally made authentic Italian cheeses.

GOCCE DI LATTE roughly translates as 'drops of milk'; formed from pure white milk, balanced and perfectly defined. Served at room temperature 'Gocce di latte' mozzarella-range strives to this excellence.

NODINI are formed by hand from stretch mozzarella dough, shaped into this original, pure white, bite-sized knot. A bite into a nodino should be soft, yet firm, milky and stringy. Nodini are traditionally used in salads, or as an antipasto (starter), seasoned and drizzled with a bit of olive oil or pesto on a platter alongside other delicacies such as Proscuitto, sun-dried tomatoes, preserved artichokes, olives and warm ciabatta bread. Like all cheese, but especially so with Mozzarella, serving at room temperature is essential. Presenting fresh cheese at reoom temperature, allows its delicate taste to perform at its best and its texture to be as described above. Serving your nodini straight out of the fridge will provide you with a product that is rubbery and tasteless. TIP: To achieve room temperature, ideally your fresh mozzarella should be taken out of the fridge at least an hour before serving, however if in a rush to enjoy them, achieve room temperature within 2 minutes, by placing the tub of nodini as bought, within a bowl with boiled water. Leave to stand, turning and touch-testing the Nodini within the tub, until they feel warm under your touch. Remove them from the water and allow to drain for a minute. Place on your platter to serve.

BURRATA Absolute perfection. They say that great things come in small packages, and this is certainly the case with Burrata. Burrata is an handmade mozzarella ball filled, with ripped mozzarella soaked in double cream, ready to ooze out over your warm spinach and pinenut pasta or to be crumbed and deep-fried.  If served fresh as i, drizzle with good quality olive oil, season and enjoy with warm bread. Serve only once at room temperature.

Burrata was first made around 1920 on the Bianchini farm in the city of Andria in Murgia an area in the Apulia region, better known as PUGLIA. In the 1950s, it became more widely available after a few of the local cheese factories began producing it. It is generally believed that factories found a way to utilize the ritagli ("scraps" or "rags") of mozzarella. Established as an artisanal cheese, Burrata maintained its premium-product status even after it began to be made in a number of factories from Andria, Bari, Mondugno all the way to Martina Franca, an eighty-mile stretch of PUGLIA. It became more widely available outside its native Apulia in the early years of the 21st century. (Description taken from Wikipedia)

FIOR DI LATTE is a traditionally shaped mozzarella ball; a pure white, soft, fresh cheese. It is often served sliced in a tri-colore (three colours) salad, made up of red tomatoes, white mozzarella and green avocado - the colours of Italy. Even though the tri-colore salad is not a traditional italian salad, its colourful and tasty blend of ingredients, makes it neverthless a tribute to its country of origin. Cubed, Fior di latte is used in Risottos like 'Risotto al telefono', in pasta dishes like 'Lasagna' and even on homemade pizza for that all time favourite stringiness. Fior di latte, due to its moistness, tends not to burn, making it ideal for any dish requiring cooking under a grill or in a very hot oven, such as pizza and lasagna.

On the subject of pizza did you know that until about a century ago, pizza had no cheese on it and then Neapolitan pizza makers laid on mozzarella slices and fresh basil to represent, along with tomato sauce, the Italian flag’s colors. These pizzamakers wanted to honor their queen, Margherita, during her visit to Naples and the combination was so delicious it stuck!

BOCCONCINO translates into MOUTHFUL , which is exactly what this perfect little ball is - A mouthful of soft, delectable, fresh mozzarella. This gem is perfect sprinkled over salad, wrapped in grilled vegetables, such as baby marrow or aubergine and drizzled with olive oil or transformed with cherry tomatoes into a caprese salad. Simplicity on show.