With his hands sheathed in six pairs of latex gloves and immersed in steaming hot water, Ryan Sciara is playing with his food.

Sciara, the managing partner of Cellar Rat wine shop in the Kansas City, Mo., area, is making fresh mozzarella, squishing and squeezing crumbles of cream-colored, whole milk mozzarella curd until they transform, magically, into snowy globes of fresh mozzarella.

"If I can do this, anyone can," he says as he stretches, pulls and folds the cheese onto itself.

Sciara began making the cheese to sell to customers last summer. He loves the stuff and wanted to see if he could do it.

He could.

And customers loved it.

At the height of fresh tomato season, he was making 40 pounds a week.

By most accounts, mozzarella has been made for more than 300 years from water buffalo milk, primarily in the Puglia region of Italy. The milk from the grumpy, lumbering beasts, originally imported from India, has a butterfat content of 9 percent. Traditionally, the cheese is made in the morning _ and meant to be consumed the same day.

By contrast, the stuff Americans have come to know as mozzarella was stringy, rubbery stuff typically found on pizza. If mozzarella was anywhere to be found on grocery shelves, it was usually yellow and chewy, with a scary-long shelf-life.

But a couple of years ago fresh mozzarella started showing up on regional Italian restaurant menus at places like Joe Avelluto's Il Trullo in Overland Park, Kan. Avelluto buys 20-pound blocks of curd from his supplier, taking pains to carefully chop the curd into uniform squares, which helps ensure the finished product will have the proper elasticity.

Avelluto learned to make mozzarella from his father, Joe Sr., who learned to make it from family in Italy.

"It's a generational thing," he says.

The process is done by touch, sight and smell.

"It's about the heating and cooling process," he says. "It's about the proper amount of salt. It's a matter of getting the proper stretch."

And it's about the differences in the quality of the curd from one batch to another. Some may be dry. Some may have more butterfat. Sometimes the yield is good. Sometimes the yield is low.

The best teacher: experience.

And, of course, there's no substitute for tasting.

"I eat a lot of it when I'm making it," Sciara admits. "Consider it quality-control."

The taste of fresh mozzarella is slightly sweet and just a little bit salty, with a pleasing yeasty finish. There's a little give in the texture while the color is clean, pure white. One bite of the real stuff, and you'll never buy the mass-produced stuff.

The other great thing about making your own?

You have plenty to share.

For Sciara, the best part of cheese-making is "when we send out an e-mail saying we're making mozzarella, people just show up."

___

MOZZARELLA SPEAK

Now that you can make it like the Italians, learn to speak it like the Italians.

Cow's milk mozzarella is called fior di latte, flower of the milk.

Ovolini is a small oval.

Bocconcini is the lovely sounding name for bite-size balls of mozzarella.

Pasta filata is the process for making mozzarella. The curds are heated in water until they begin to form strings and become stretchy.

Pizza Margherita, created for Queen Margherita of Italy in 1889, is one of the most popular pizzas in Italy. It's a simple pie: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil.

___

Saltwater + curd = amore

Like so many culinary trends, what started in restaurants has moved to kitchen tables. And home chefs _ even those with limited cooking skills _ can make their own fior di latte.

The process is stunningly simple. Ladle hot salted water over a bowl full of crumbled curds. Stir with a spoon or hands until the curds "melt," then change into strands and strings of goo. Play with the goo until it starts to set up. Form into a ball and drop into a big bowl of iced water. Voila! Wait, that's French.

Here's what you'll need:

A big pot of salted water. Salt level is key. Add enough kosher salt until the water is as salty as the ocean. And for good measure, add another teaspoon or two.

Mozzarella curds. Use only whole milk curds that you've crumbled or cut into uniform-size chunks. Put them in an oversized bowl with plenty of space for hot water and room to knead. (Figure on a yield of 1 pound curd = 1 pound cheese.) There will be some loss in weight, but not a whole lot. Cellar Rat sells fresh curd for $9 a pound. Dean & Deluca, in Leawood, Kan., sells it for $8 a pound. Check these Web sites, too: www.todarobros.com and www.goldenagecheese.com. Their prices range from $4.50 to $6 a pound, plus shipping.

A bowl full of iced, salted water. After you've made the mozzarella, it goes into the iced water, which "shocks" it and further seasons it. The cheese needs a minimum of 30 seconds in the water bath.

Gather together your equipment: a ladle for the hot water, a wooden spoon to stir the curd, several layers of latex gloves to protect hands, an empty bowl to dump the water that has cooled and plastic wrap for the finished product. Although you can stop and start between batches, once you have curd in the hot water, you want to minimize interruptions, so have all your equipment in place before you begin.

Here's how to make the cheese:

1. Put the curds in a large mixing bowl.

2. Ladle enough hot water over the bowl of curds to cover them by an inch or two. Begin stirring the curds until they begin to break apart, then begin to become gooey and stringy. This will take only about 30 seconds or so.

3. Next begin to stretch and pull and work the mozzarella. The cheese will look lumpy, with tiny grains of curd and small air bubbles.

4. Fold the ends underneath the center, in a stretch and sweep motion until the mass begins to turn shiny and from ivory colored to snowy-white. During the next 3 to 4 minutes, when the water cools to room temperature, dump it into the empty bowl set aside for that purpose and add another ladle or two of hot water. Keep the hot water at a low simmer. Water at a full rolling boil is too hot for hands and can give the finished mozzarella a soft, pudding-like texture. (Continue working the cheese until it is smooth. If it not worked enough, the finished product will be gritty. Too much and the cheese will be rubbery.)

5. Squeezing the ball of cheese in your hand, use the thumb and forefinger to force out a wad of cheese. They can be any size or shape you want. Drop the balls into the iced bath and start the process all over again. To store, simply drain the mozzarella on paper towels and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week, although they are best consumed within four or five days.

___

SIMPLE POLENTA WITH SAUTEED CHERRY TOMATOES AND FRESH MOZZARELLA

Makes 4 as main course or 6 as a side dish

For the polenta:

6 cups water

Salt

1 ½ cups polenta or evenly ground medium or coarse-ground cornmeal

1 ½ ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (about ¾ cup)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into large chunks

Ground black pepper

For the tomatoes and mozzarella:

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin

Pinch red pepper flakes

Pinch sugar

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

Salt and ground black pepper

6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/3 cubes (about 1 cup)

2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves

Bring the water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Once boiling, add 1½ teaspoons salt and pour the polenta into the water in a very slow stream from a measuring cup, while stirring in a circular motion with a wooden spoon. Make sure to scrape the bottom and seams of the pot well.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and cover. Vigorously stir the polenta once every 5 minutes, making sure to scrape clean the bottom and corners of the pot. Continue cooking until the polenta has lots its raw cornmeal taste and becomes soft and smooth, about 30 minutes. Stir in the Parmesan and butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the tomatoes and mozzarella: During the final 5 minutes of cooking the polenta, heat the oil, garlic, pepper flakes and sugar in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant and sizzling, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until they just begin to wilt, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper to taste and set the skillet aside off the heat.

Spoon the polenta into individual serving bowls and top with the mozzarella. Spoon the tomato mixture with any accumulated juices over the top, and sprinkle with the basil before serving.

Per serving (based on 4): 758 calories (40 percent from fat), 34 grams total fat (15 grams saturated), 70 milligrams cholesterol, 90 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams protein, 389 milligrams sodium, 12 grams dietary fiber.

From "The Best International Recipe" by America's Test Kitchen (America's Test Kitchen, 2007 ).

___

CAPRESE SALAD

Makes 4 servings

4 medium tomatoes (about 1 ¼ pounds), washed and cored

½ pound fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly

5 basil leaves, stacked neatly, rolled into a cylinder and cut into thin ribbons

2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut tomatoes into ¼-inch slices and arrange on a plate, alternating tomatoes with mozzarella slices. Scatter the basil ribbons over the tomatoes and mozzarella. Drizzle with olive oil and season to taste.

Per serving: 268 calories (70 percent from fat), 21 grams total fat (10 grams saturated), 51 milligrams cholesterol, 7 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams protein, 247 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

From The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (Potter, 2007). @ For a video on how to make your own fresh mozzarella, go to KansasCity.com/food.