In
the News
 May 20, 2009
Mozzarita is Italian-style cow’s-milk cheese made in Pompano Beach. Owner Vito Volpe was born in Bari Puglia, Italy. He lived for a while in New York before moving to South Florida.
Volpe learned cheesemaking from his Italian family. “Everyone in my small hometown made cheese,” he says. “I made cheese for years in Italy before moving in 1972 to Long Island.”
I learned about Volpe’s cheese from a vendor who sells it at the seasonal Upper East Side Market in Legion Memorial Park on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. It is also available at Whole Foods Market and Gardner’s Market, and Volpe supplies it to various high-end restaurants in South Florida.
Volpe started in South Florida as an importer of quality Italian food products, including olive oil, which he still offers through his import-export company, Norba Import. He has combined his Norba Import and Mozzarita cheese offerings on a new Web site.
Volpe makes several kinds of cheese. “I buy milk from a Tampa dairy farm in five-gallon bags that are delivered in a cradle,” he says. “Currently we are making about 2,500 gallons a week of mozzarella cheese. We hope to make a lot more. First we make curds, and from the curds we process the mozzarella in different shapes.”
(Read
article)
As seen on Whole Foods Ad
Sun
Sentinel
April 16, 2009
 Eat local: Cheesemakers craft fresh mozzarella at
Mozzarita in Pompano Beach
Vito Volpe
loves cheese, especially fresh mozzarella.
In his native Bari in southern Italy, he would eat
a couple of pounds of it sitting in his car in traffic
on his way home from work. He still likes to savor
its creamy taste. And when he visits Italy, fresh mozzarella
is the first thing he buys when he gets off the plane.
But now he has an unlimited supply in this country,
too.
That's because he makes it.
In a gleaming white and stainless steel kitchen, Volpe
and a two-man crew turn out mountains of snow-white
mozzarella and other cheeses at his company, Mozzarita
in Pompano Beach.
Volpe didn't start his career as a cheesemaker. He
spent 32 years in the restaurant business in his homeland,
as well as in Long Island, N.Y., before moving to Florida
nearly five years ago.
He began importing Italian food products, including
olive oil, pasta and olives, before venturing into
cheese making. His right-hand man is Mimmo Marchitelli,
who also comes from Bari.
He starts with
pasteurized whole cows' milk — 2,000
to 2,500 gallons a week from a Tampa-area dairy. The
milk is combined with natural rennet, an enzyme from
a calf's stomach, which causes it to coagulate and
separate into curds and liquid or whey.
Marchitelli then fills a container with 40 pounds
of curds and begins to stir with a large wooden paddle,
periodically adding boiling water.
As he stirs, the individual curds cling together creating
a satiny mound of mozzarella. When it's ready, Marchitelli
places heaping handfuls of the cheese on the paddle
and gently kneads and stretches the shiny mass.
In just seconds, he turns a strand of cheese into
a tidy knot or plump braid. Then he drops the shapes
into a cold brine bath and packs them in plastic containers.
"I'm proud of what I make," Volpe says,
speaking of his company. "I don't want to make
just any cheese. I want to make the best."
He's hardly the only fan.
"I like the
smoothness, buttery-ness of his mozzarella," says
John Schupbach, executive chef at Casablanca Cafe in
Fort Lauderdale. "It almost melts in your
mouth."
Schupbach uses
the mozzarella on a tomato-basil pizza and in a panino
that is also layered with prosciutto, grilled eggplant,
roasted red peppers and a portobello mushroom. "Why fly in something when you can have
it delivered fresh, several times a week?" Schupbach
asks.
Volpe's cheeses contain no chemical additives. They
are so fresh and pure, they are best when eaten within
days.
Though he's a master at making mozzarella, he also
provides cow's milk burrata, a cheese that is like
a mozzarella shell with a creamy center. And burrata
made with buffalo milk from Vermont. In addition, he
makes ricotta and scamorza that's similar to mozzarella.
Five days a week he makes between 600 to 800 pounds
of cheese daily, which he sells under the Mozzarita
brand and to stores and restaurants.
"I like to sell to people who appreciate my food.
I put my heart into it," he says.
Mozzarita
Address: 5390 NE 13th Way, Pompano Beach, 954-426-5115
Details: Mozzarita's retail shop is open from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m.
Monday-Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Also available
at Whole Foods Markets and the Mediterranean Market,
1021 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-463-1212.
(Read
article)
Miami
New Times
Best of 2008
Best Mozzarella: Vito Volpe's Mozzarita
That "fresh"
mozzarella you buy at Publix or gourmet markets is unquestionably
worlds better than the standard rubbery, flavor-free
stuff. But it's nothing compared to the cheese made
by Vito Volpe, from Puglia (Italy's muzz capital), an
importer of Italian artisan products who began selling
his own totally homemade — and made fresh daily
— mozzarella when he moved to Florida a bit more
than a year ago. His simple and perfect Mozzarita ($8
per ball), one of the tastiest things to ever happen
to cow's milk, was the sensation of this year's new
Upper Eastside Green Market. (Read
article)
Miami Herald
September 8, 2008
Italian pals team up for fresh mozzarella
By LINDA BLADHOLM
Vito Volpe
is bringing fresh mozzarella to South Florida one cheese
ball at a time under the Mozzarita label. The creamy
dairy delight is handmade by master cheesemaker Mimmo
Marchittla, a friend of Volpe's from Bari, a city in
Puglia, the southern ''boot'' region of Italy.
Manipulating
milk with enzymes to create simple cheeses began in
ancient times, but mozzarella was first made about 300
years ago in Puglia. After World War II, it was made
with water buffalo milk from cattle imported from India.
Volpe, who
grew up on a farm near Bari, spent 32 years in the restaurant
business on Long Island. When he moved to Boca Raton
four years ago, he decided to add fresh mozzarella to
the line of Italian food products he sells through Norba,
his import-export company in Pompano Beach. He built
a small cheese plant adjacent to his office-showroom
and brought on board Marchittla, who is ably assisted
by Maribel Rodriguez...
Mozzarella
is derived from the verb mozzare, meaning to cut, as
the large mass of curd is cut into small pieces once
the milk is curdled using a citric acid and salt solution.
To make the cheese, curds are added to hot whey (the
liquids from the drained curds) and stirred until the
curds melt and start to form a smooth, shiny mass.
Marchittla
stretches the mass like taffy, then grabs globs of hot
curds and kneads them like bread, patting them into
smooth, elastic balls. Rodriguez helps to break the
large balls into little knots called nodino that are
dropped into a cold brine bath and packed into plastic
containers. (They're best consumed the same day but
will keep about three days.)
Ricotta
is made by adding cold milk to hot whey (the byproduct
of mozzarella). Burrata is basically mozzarella stuffed
in mozzarella. The outer skin is patted into a flat
disc that is stretched and wrapped around unfinished
curd and heavy cream, creating a soft core.
Burrata
is great cut in quarters and dressed with good olive
oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Fresh mozzarella
can be eaten as is or added to salads, pastas and other
dishes. If you've only had supermarket mozzarella, these
fresh, handmade cheeses will be a revelation.
Daily
Candy Miami
October 17, 2008
Cheese Whiz
Vito Volpe’s Mozzarita Cheese
Cheese it!
Two
cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other:
“Does this taste funny to you?”
Ah,
cheesiness. It’s always been your weakness. That’s
why you’ll love Mozzarita, fresh mozzarella made
right here in South Florida by a bona fide Italian (named
Vito, no less).
Vito
Volpe churns out different shapes of rich mozzarella-like
braids, knots, and bocconcini (tiny mouthfuls, great
for parties). He makes a mean burrata (thick mozzarella
outside, shredded mozzarella mixed with buttermilk inside)
and fior di latte (the one-pound ball used to make Caprese
salad).
You
won’t find any preservatives in Vito’s all-natural
cheeses, and because they’re made locally you
can sink your teeth into Florida’s freshest ’rella
with the smallest carbon footprint.
And
that’s no joke. (Read
Article)
Available at Mozzarita, 5392 Northeast 13th Way,
Pompano Beach (954-426-5115); Sunday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.,
Las Olas Outdoor Gourmet Market, 1201 East Las Olas
Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale; starting November 1, Saturdays,
9 a.m.-3 p.m., The Upper East Side Green Market, Legion
Park, 6447 Northeast 7th Avenue.
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