Agrapoli SA, Italy
We source our mozzarella from a small family business called Il Caseificio Polito, located near Agropoli in the Campania region of southern Italy.
Their farm is situated on the edge of the Sele Plain, which is widely known as the home of the best bufala in Italy – a claim that every Italian will attest to (unless, of course, they are from Caserta).
We have known brothers Francesco and Nicola Polito since we first met them in Agropoli in 2016. We were in Campania on a sourcing trip, searching for a producer of hand-shaped mozzarella, and one who worked with milk from their own herd. They have a little shop at the front of the dairy, which is the hamlet of Mattine, on the road between Agropoli and Battipaglia.
The Buffalo herd is kept just down the road, on the edge of the fabulous Cilento national park.Here the milk is transformed in under 24 hours into DOP Campania buffalo mozzarella.
We offer both their classic and smoked versions.
"We found Polito almost by chance - and since then their Mozzarella di Bufala has been one of the cornerstones of our offer in London."
— Philip Crouch
The story of the Polito brothers is one of passion, hard work, and dedication. Their mozzarella balls are still shaped by hand where so many other producers have brought in machines to do the job.
Mozzarella is a stretched curd cheese, a style known in Italy as ‘pasta filata’ or ‘spun paste’. In this process the cheese curds are heated in water at 70-80C, stretched into strands, then kneaded into shape. Their mozzarella balls are still shaped by hand. Most producers use machines to do this job.
The result is that the mozzarella achieves the perfect balance between staying moist and having a pleasantly firm texture. Some mozzarellas can be very wet, making them difficult to handle, while others are too dry, losing that wonderful creamy texture.