If you cannot get good fresh mozzarella

What the original actually contributes

Milky sweetness, a soft yielding bite, and the characteristic pooling and separation of a Neapolitan margherita. It also brings a great deal of water, which is a feature in a 90-second bake and a problem in a longer one.

See the full cheese entry

Where availability is the problem

Fresh cow's-milk mozzarella (fior di latte) is widely available but varies enormously in quality; supermarket versions are often wetter and blander than a good deli one. Buffalo mozzarella is more expensive and more perishable again.

Options

1. Low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella

   A meaningful adaptation

   A good pizza, honestly a different one. Not a failed attempt at the original, and not the original either.

   Available in: Everywhere

   How to use it

   Shred or cube and apply directly. No draining or drying needed, unlike fresh.

   What changes

   Browns and stretches rather than pooling and releasing water — a genuinely different result, and the correct one for New York, Detroit, tavern-style and most American pizza. Calling it a downgrade misreads the history: it became the American standard because fresh was unavailable to Italian immigrants, and the tradition built around it is its own.

   What it does not change

   Nothing about the dough or bake needs adjusting; if anything it is more forgiving.

   Strongly supported
   • American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza — Ten Speed Press
   • Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab

2. Wet supermarket fresh mozzarella, drained properly

   Close

   Keeps what defines the style. There is a difference, and it is minor.

   Available in: Everywhere

   How to use it

   Tear rather than slice, spread on kitchen paper, and leave in the fridge uncovered for several hours or overnight. Use noticeably less than looks right.

   What changes

   Draining recovers most of the gap between supermarket and deli mozzarella. Undrained, the same cheese will flood a pizza — most complaints about watery homemade margherita are a draining problem, not a cheese-quality one.

   Strongly supported
   • Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab

3. Buffalo mozzarella where a recipe calls for fior di latte

   Workable, with trade-offs

   The result is recognisably the style, but you lose something specific — named below.

   How to use it

   Drain thoroughly; use less than you would fior di latte.

   What changes

   Richer, tangier and considerably wetter. Excellent, and it is not a neutral upgrade — the AVPN standard permits both, and many Neapolitan pizzaioli prefer fior di latte precisely because it releases less water.

   Strongly supported
   • International Regulation for True Neapolitan Pizza (Disciplinare Internazionale) — Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN)

4. Pre-shredded bagged mozzarella with anti-caking starch

   Workable, with trade-offs

   The result is recognisably the style, but you lose something specific — named below.

   How to use it

   Usable at need; expect to compensate with a slightly hotter bake.

   What changes

   The cellulose or starch coating interferes with melt and can leave a slightly grainy or dull surface rather than a clean molten one. It works; block cheese shredded at home is meaningfully better for very little effort.

   Generally accepted
   • Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab

Related

Evidence

• Modernist Pizza — The Cooking Lab
• American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza — Ten Speed Press