How to choose the best cheese for pizza

If you know how to make pizza dough at home (including cauliflower pizza dough), you may be wondering what the best cheese is to use on a pizza.

Choosing the best pizza cheese, or combination of cheeses for your pizza, depends on a few factors:

Melt: Melted, stretchy cheese is a must-have on pizza. The most commonly used cheese on pizza is mozzarella, because it melts beautifully without turning oily or lumpy. Cheeses such as feta, haloumi and aged gouda are tasty toppings, but they're a bit fancy for families and don’t melt as well as mozzarella. Low-moisture mozzarella in particular has great melt and stretch. High-moisture or fresh mozzarella is also a good choice, but its higher moisture content has potential to lead to a soggy base.
Taste: While mozzarella is great for melting, it has a mild flavour compared to some other cheeses. If you’re after a tastier pizza, the blend of Mozzarella, Cheddar and Parmesan is a winning combination. If you want a more pungent flavour, then try Swiss cheese, provolone or even blue cheese.
Colour: A good pizza is covered in a blanket of golden, bubbling cheese. Mozzarella wins again here because it turns golden easily. If you want the science behind why mozzarella colours better than other cheeses, this BBC report explains it all.

Now you know what to look out for, you could make up your own pizza cheese blend, or you can pick up a bag of ready-made pizza cheese such as Perfect Italiano’s Perfect Pizza which combines the best ratio of mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan so you can get the perfect melt, taste and golden colour without any fuss. The team at Perfect Italiano have created a series of pizza recipes with some great ideas for pizza flavours and toppings.

GET THE RECIPE: Cheesy Herb and Garlic Pizza by Perfect Italiano

Click play to learn this recipe for cheesy, garlicky pizza with a burst of flavour from fresh herbs. It's perfect to make as an appetiser thanks to how quick it is to make.