Today we're going to be talking about mozzarella as part of our series on amazing ingredients, ones with a rich history and amazing uses in the kitchen. Mozzarella is a unique cheese - it's very different from other cheeses.

Of course, we all love pizza. What would pizza be without mozzarella? When I was growing up, we didn't have mozzarella in our country, and so the pizza was made with yellow cheeses like cheddar, and it wasn't nearly as good. Mozzarella has the amazing properties of being gooey, melty, and stretchy, like a slice of pizza where all the cheese stretches from the middle.

So, mozzarella obviously originated in Italy - in the southern region of Campania, around Naples. It actually came into existence during the Middle Ages, around the 12th century. The legend of mozzarella says that it was an accidental discovery. During the Middle Ages, cheese makers could have dropped curd into hot water, either during the cheese making process or by accident, and then noticed that it began to stretch and form those elastic strands which are the unique characteristic of mozzarella.