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That's a curiosity I have after visiting Italy.

I ate pizza all the time but I couldn't differentiate the variety of mozzarella on them.

What is the most common mozzarella used on their pizza?

  1. Mozzarella di bufala
  2. Common Mozzarella
  3. Fresh mozzarella
  4. Burrata
  5. Smoked
  6. Curd
  7. Other?
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    I don't know that this is really answerable... What part of Italy are you interested in? What type of pizza?
    – Catija
    Mar 10, 2016 at 19:43
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    @Catija I understand 100% what you mean! I do believe that common Mozzarella is the most used mozzarella in Italy (in general). I believe pizzas that do not use common mozzarella would be exceptions, like Rucola (bufala) e Maltija (goat), or some very specific region where they get goat cheese so cheap that they use goat cheese on everything (pizza, wedding cake, icecream...), in other words, that would be exception.
    – vianna77
    Mar 10, 2016 at 19:54

3 Answers 3

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I'm not sure what you mean by "common mozzarella." If you mean the dried out "low-moisture" stuff you find in the U.S., that's just not common in Italy. If your pizza actually had "mozzarella" on it, it was likely either actual mozzarella di bufala (from buffalo milk, the traditional version) or fior di latte (i.e., cow's milk mozzarella, which we'd call "fresh mozzarella" in the U.S.). Those two are pretty much the definition of "mozzarella" in Italy. Other cheeses or forms would rarely be called simply "mozzarella." Mozzarella di bufala is more expensive and is often advertised specifically on a menu, though some purists might say that just the term mozzarella by itself should indicate buffalo milk (as opposed to fior di latte).

Now, there are commercial forms of fior di latte available in Italy which have lower moisture content specifically for pizzas, though I don't think anywhere near as low-moisture as the typical stuff you find in an American supermarket. Other pizzerias will drain the fresh fior di latte for several hours before using on a pizza to avoid excess moisture and an excessively soggy pizza.

All of that said, Italians put all sorts of different kinds of cheese on pizza. It's not uncommon at all to have a grated hard cheese be the only cheese on a pizza in some regions, or even no cheese at all (e.g., Rome's pizza bianca). It's quite possible you were served pizza with some other "melty" cheese too, but it wouldn't have been called "mozzarella" on a menu.


EDIT: I see now that the OP is from Brazil. I don't know what sorts of mozzarella are common in Brazil, so I don't know what "common mozzarella" means precisely in the question (as I said already). Just for clarification: in the U.S., there is a very dry "low-moisture" form of mozzarella often used for pizzas. My experience is that in other countries, the lower moisture form of mozzarella is still quite moist, though it can be sealed in a plastic wrapper without brine/packing liquid. In the U.S., this form of mozzarella would generally still be considered "fresh mozzarella," just without brine. However, obviously mozzarella packed like this is rarely "fresh" as in Italian "fresh" mozzarella, which is often consumed the day it is made. So again, I think the exact difference between "common mozzarella" and "fresh mozzarella" would vary significantly by country, but hopefully my answer above is still clear.

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Fior di latte is by far the most commonly used cheese in Italian pizza. Parmigiano (parmesan} is also used on occasion in some areas as well as scamorza affumicata

Packaged mozzarella as seen in the UK or the US doesn't really exist in Italy as far as I know from my travels in Italy. If it does, it definitely doesn't show up on pizza.

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I'd say most use "common mozzaralla" for the pizzas.

Depending on the region and if the pizzeria offer higher-end ingredients, pizza might be topped with Mozzarella di bufala or Buratta.

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  • I don’t think I’ve ever seen burrata used as a pizza cheese in Italy. It would be a weird thing to do. Burrata is meant to be served fresh, not melted, and would release a ton of water if melted on a pizza.
    – Sneftel
    Dec 3, 2020 at 6:53

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