Discovering a world called "Mozzarella". Travel with us.

X CENTURY

The origins of mozzarella are directly linked to the introduction of buffaloes in Italy. One of the most accredited hypotheses claims that the diffusion in southern Italy took place in the Norman period, starting from Sicily where the buffaloes had been brought towards the end of the 10th century, following the invasions of the Saracens and the Moors.

XI CENTURY
Around the 11th century the swamping of the coastal plains of the lower Tyrrhenian side was completed - Piana del Volturno and the Sele - thus assuming those environmental characteristics most suitable for buffalo breeding.

1189-1266
In the Swabian era, buffaloes reached the current breeding areas.

XII - XIII CENTURY
Already in the twelfth century, the first historical documents appear that testify how the monks of the monastery of San Lorenzo in Capua used to offer a cheese called mound or provatura (when smoked), accompanied by a piece of bread, to pilgrims who are members of the Metropolitan they went every year in procession to the church of the Convent.

XIV CENTURY
There are several testimonies that prove the marketing of buffalo milk derivatives usually destined for the rich Neapolitan and Salerno markets. For obvious reasons of viability the only ones to arrive were "cut-offs" and above all "provings" in which the commercial life of the product was extended thanks to smoking.

XV CENTURY
The first "bufalare", characteristic masonry constructions, with a circular shape with a central fireplace, date back to the 15th century, where buffalo milk was processed to obtain provolone, caciocavalli, butter, ricotta and naturally buffalo mozzarella.

1570
For the first time, the term “mozzarella” appears in a famous text by Bartolomeo Scappi, cook of the papal court.

XVIII CENTURY
Mozzarella became a widely consumed product, also thanks to the creation in the province of Caserta, by the Bourbons, of a large buffalo farm with an adjoining experimental dairy for the transformation of the same milk. In a stable register the most important events of the buffaloes were noted, which was given a name that usually recalled the characters of the court.

During the Spanish domination the buffalo was also used as an animal to hunt. In fact, “buffalo hunts” were organized during which the court went to the farming areas of the Volturno plain and that of the Sele.

NINETEENTH CENTURY
With the unification of Italy, the "Taverna" saw the light in Aversa: a real wholesale market for mozzarella and dairy products produced from the same milk, including ricotta, which, on a daily basis, established the quotations in relation to production and demand. The trade was regulated on the basis of actual contracts that entered into force from September 1st to August 31st of the following year, stipulated between the owner of the buffaloes who also transformed the milk and the "distributor" of the products.

1940
“… Every buffalo has a name which is a verse and the names of a buffalo herd are a poem”.

Rocco Scotellaro

XX CENTURY
The poet and writer from Basilicata Rocco Scotellaro, in his investigation into the culture of the peasants of the South - Peasants of the South, says that the buffalo (the person dedicated to buffalo breeding) knew his buffaloes individually, as if they were "Christians". So much so that each of them gave a name. "Contessa", "Amorosa", "Cambiale", "Monacella", "‘ A malatia "," ‘Straw cup". Sometimes then the names turned into real maxims that arose from the behavior of the animals and from the close relationship they had with the buffalo.