Then he had a breakthrough: "I produced some buffalo mozzarella that was good, " he says.

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Taking its cue from the age-old Neapolitan tradition, pizzas are made from slowly proofed sourdough, San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella singed in an extremely hot wood-fired oven.

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Traditionally, mozzarella, that bouncy, grassy-fresh ball of a cheese, is made with the milk of the water buffalo in the Campania region of Southern Italy.

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