Pizza Cheese Blends and Ideas

When most people think pizza cheese they immediately think, "Mozzarella."

While there certinaly is nothing wrong with using mozzarella to its very best atop a fine homemade pizza, there are a variety of other cheeses that can compliment the mozz, and add flavor and color to your confection.

The most common compliment to mozzarella is provolone.

Provalone is a slightly sharper white cheese that when blended with mozzarella provides a more flavorful cheese. Premade blends are available in most grocery stores, or you can buy provalone and shred it yourself, or even just lay strips across the top of the mozzarella.

A typical mozz/prov blend will be about 70% mozzarella to 30% provalone.

Cheddar is another common cheese that goes nicely with mozzarella and provalone.

Try a light sprinkling of cheddar above the white cheeses to add some color to the cheese when it melts together, but be warned, too much cheddar results in a sharp tasting cheese that is also *very* stringy.

Other cheeses that can work well on pizzas in small doses include parmesan, and fontina.

Generally, creamier cheese like havarti and brie will melt at too low a temperature and burn before a pizza is cooked, and so are not typically good for homemade pizzas.

 -James