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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the Italy category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
Holland is the previous category.
Netherlands is the next category.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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Italy Archives
Mario Batali and others call it "the undisputed King of Cheeses"--Parmigiano Reggiano. I would not agree with the undisputed part--I do know some Frenchmen and this cheese isn't French--but I do say yes to its royal pedigree. Most often used grated or shredded because of its granular texture, grana, parmigiano is great shaved thin to top salads and pasta or broken into small shards for a cheese plate.
The first comment I thought I would write about this majestic cheese is the taste of salt. After all, it is used time and again to punch up other tastes with its saltiness. But tasting parmigiano again and alone, I was surprised that salt was not the first flavor on my tongue. First comes the texture. The peaks of the granules brush the tongue and the sides of my mouth. Then the taste buds around my tounge perk up. I sense the sweetness of milk. Then the tang of a cheese like Swiss Emmentaler followed by a slight nuttiness. Only then does the saltiness emerge. Occassionaly my tooth will hit a grain of saltier, harder cheese tucked into a larger bite.
Like a lot of Americans my first experience of "parmesan cheese" came out of a green cardboard can with a yellow smiling top. When my family had spaghetti with store-bought sauce we always topped it with the yellowy-white cheese. I liked it but then I didn't know any better. After tasting the real thing I could never go back. (That's not 100% true. I promise I will never buy the stuff but if I am visiting my parents and we eat spaghetti at home, there is a nice nostalgic comfort in the combination of Ragu and Kraft Parmesan, much like the affection I will always have for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner--not the best of its kind but a comfort from childhood.)
I have tried Argentinian "parmesan" and it can be an adequete substitute in cooked dishes. But its texture is worlds apart from the true thing. It lacks the marble-like layers of grana that flake away when cutting into real parmigiano.
Try the big PR, Parmigano Reggiano. Truly one of the world's best.
Name: Parmigano Reggiano
Type of Milk: Cow, Part Skim, Unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Emilia-Romagna
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $15.99/lb.
I had never heard of Crucolo before buying it. After tasting it I was glad I picked it up.
One online source describes the flavor "resembling Parmegiano-Reggiano" but "with a creamy texture". In my mind it was closer to an Emmentaler or mild gruyere in taste and texture, not really creamy at all. Nice tang. It has a milky pale color and small holes throughout.
A delicious cheese.
Name: Crucolo
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $17.99/lb.
The difference between young provolone and aged is the difference between Beaujolais Nouveau and ten-year-old Port, between an '87 Mustang and a '64, between Brittany Spears and Ella Fitzgerald. Age and experience can be wonderful things. This aged provolone, labeled "piccante”, is not so much spicy or sharp like an aged cheddar but piquant in the tangy sense.
The name "provolone" may be derived from the Naples’s dialect for "globe" since one of the traditional shapes for this cheese was a round ball. Now it is most often seen in a large sausage-like shape. The texture has concentric onion-like layers that you can peel away, much like a fresh mozzarella ball. This is not surprising since provolone is the older brother of the mozzarella family. Take a fresh ball of mozzarella, hang it by string in a cool, dry room and rub the surface with salt water for the first few days. After a few months you have provolone. Auricchio, the manufacturer of this cheese, has been making it since 1877.
Serve it sliced or in chunks on an antipasto platter.
This is a wonderful cheese for cooking. It makes a great addition to a grilled cheese sandwich or to top salads or pasta.
Name: Auricchio Provolone
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Auricchio Company
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
La Tur is one of my favorite cheeses. The best way to describe it is like butter with an attitude. At the proper temperature and ripeness it is soft, smooth and spreadable but still dense with pungent, ripe flavor. It is sold in small 4-inch disks about one inch deep placed in pleated paper like a cupcake. The outside has a light white undeveloped mold and the inside is the color of cream. It goes well with a warm French baguette. We also tried it with two condiments, a Spanish quince paste, Membrillo, and fig jam. The fig jam didn't work. It was not sweet enough to compete with the stronger cheese flavors. The quince paste was delicious though, sweet but not cloying, a little acidic, a little tart.
La Tur is a triptych blend of cow, sheep and goat milk. It is pastuerized but at the lowest temperature allowed by law which helps retain some of the flavors of unpasteurized cheeses. It is aged for about two weeks before being shipped around the world.
If you can find it buy it. Did I say it was one of my favorites? Yes I did.
Name: La Tur
Type of Milk: Cow's, Sheep's and Goat's, Pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy, Alta Lange, Caseificio Dell'Alta Langa
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/4/2006
Date Eaten: 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $19.99/lb.
"What's the difference between Buffalo milk mozzarella and cow milk mozarella?" That's not the set up to a joke, at least not any one I know, but somethingI wanted to know and decided to find out. First let's make the distinction between fresh mozarella and the other kind. Fresh mozzarella is fresh, as in recently made. It has a pretty short shelf life like fresh milk. It is formed into gumball to baseball sized globes and kept in a watery brine. Fresh mozzarella is bright white and seeming formed of layers of fresh cheese. "Plain mozzarella", the stuff sold in bricks and found topping most pizzas is dryer and yellower. It tastes more like cheese whereas fresh mozzarella tastes like milk.
So what's the deal with these Buffalos? Well, first think water buffalo, like the Flintstones' Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo, and not like "tatonka" in "Dances with Wolves". Their milk is creamier, has a higher fat content than cow milk, I have read. I have never drunk any as of this writing, but I have tasted the cheese.
I bought the fresh mozzarella the day before trying it. There was no produced by date and only a mysterious "Use by" date that seemed to lack enough digits to be a date, so I do not know how fresh it really was.
Fleming and I agreed that the fresh buffalo mozzarella was softer that other fresh moz. "Softer, but that doesn't mean creamier," she noted. "The taste is so much stronger but the texture is so much softer". Other fresh mozzarella I have tried was softer outside than in, absorbing water from the brine. This was just the opposite, softer in the middle.
It tasted like slightly sour milk, "lemony", but with no after-taste. Pleasant, clean flavors. I don't know if the slight sourness was typical or due to shelf life. When I try it again I will follow up.
If you're making a Caprese salad I think the real buffalo milk cheese would play well with tomatoes' acidity and basil's spice. Great on its own too.
Name: Mozzarella di Bufala
Type of Milk: Buffalo, Pasteurized
Type: fresh
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/4/2006
Date Eaten: 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
No, not "ricotta salad", as I first thought. "Ricotta salata" means "salted ricotta" or literally "salted re-cooked". Ricotta is the cooked down whey left over from the curd ("curds and whey") that went into making some other cheese. Often this is fresh and sweet and sold in small tubs to be used in lasagna, calzones or cheese dips. Ricotta salata is salted and pressed to form a firm, crumbly, death-white disk of cheese.
By itself ricotta salata is a little too salty to eat as is. Its saltiness pairs well with fresh fruit though and makes it a great ingredient in pasta dishes. In a traditional recipe of Orrechiette with Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil, ricotta salata is crumbled over the finished dish to add the cheesy components of salt and creaminess and a little sheepy tang.
Name: Ricotta Salata
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $5.99/lb.
Here is a wonderful cheese from the Italian Alps, Fontina Valle d'Aosta. Another of my favorites. True fontina has great natural flavor, the good tastes and odors of the farm--hay, grass, milk, straw, air. The alpine Italians have been producing it for hundreds of years. Look for the name on the cheese paper or the blue Matterhorn stamp to get the real thing.
Fontina Valle d'Aosta melts well (think baked pastas or on warm bread) but is delicious at room temperature with a hearty red wine and sliced salumi.
Name: Fontina Valle d'Aosta, DOP
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $14.99/lb.
Soft and creamy are the first words to come to my mind when tasting Asiago Fresco. The cheese has havarati like holes (small, flat, plentiful) and a delicate flavor. Unlike older, drier Asiago (Asiago d'Allevo) Asiago Fresco Pressato is great on sandwiches or panini. It is good with salami and cold cuts. A very nice, every day cheese.
Name: Monti Trentini Asiago Fresco Pressato or Asaigo Ppressato Monti Trentini
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Asaigo, Casearia Monti Trentini
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/26/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $9.99/lb.
Piave is named after the Piave River Valley of northern Italy where it is produced. It is made from part-skim pasturized cow's milk like many other hard cheeses. The cows are milked twice daily. Whole milk from the first milking is used as well as milk whose cream has been skimmed from the evening milking. Piave when aged is a sweeter cousin of the parmesan family. Look for a waxy rind and the "PIAVE" name imprinted on the edges.
Like other hard Italian cheeses it can be grated over pasta or vegetables or shaved on salads or bread. It may be a poor man's Parmesan but that poor man will not be deprived and will eat well tonight.
Name: Piave, Aged
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99/lb.
Pecorino Romano is one of the gratable, hard sheep's milk cheeses of Italy. Pecorino is devrived from "pecora", the Italin word for sheep. My go-to Italian sheep's milk cheese for pasta is Pecarino Locatelli, but the Romano stands up to it. The cheese has a nice sheep's milk flavor. It is a little more moist than Locatelli, but that may be the age of this particular piece. Its flavor is not as salty, not as sharp. The color is a paler shade of white. A good cheese. By the real thing. Buy it whole, never grated.
Name: Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $6.99/lb.
Locatelli is a brand of Pecorini Romano cheese distinguished by its dark brown rind, pale yellow color and sharp, salty flavor. It is my go-to grating cheese and one of two kinds I almost always have in the house (Parmigiano Reggiano the other). I almost always use it in combination with Parmigiano.
Name: Locatelli Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $10.99/lb.
Nostrano, a cheese from the town of Fiavè in the Trentino region of Italy, has a unique flavor that makes it a nice addition to any Italian cheese tray. The cheese has an Emmental-like texture. The taste has a hint of gruyere but with some other subtle flavors I find difficult to describe. I would serve it with mild hams or mortadella so as not to overpower it.
Go ahead an try it. I'm not saying it will become your new favorite cheese but it will be a nice change from the norm.
Name: Nostrano Fiavè
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $11.99/lb.
Spressa is one of the oldest cheeses of Europe. Spressa Fiave is a dry cheese but not as granular as parmesan. Compared to to hard cheeses it is a little chewier, more elastic. I guess the way I would describe it is "not unpleasantly rubbery". Salty. Tangy. Complex flavors. The appearance has marked striations, almost layers, as if the cheese were pressed. The name itself is derived from the word for "press"
A note on names: Spressa delle Giudicarie DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) is a protected designation of origin, i.e. only cheese produced in the region can call itself Spressa delle Giudicarie. There is also a Spressa Pinzolo presumably from the town of Pinzolo, also in Trentino. The label for this cheese has it as Spressa Fiave (not Fiavè) as with Nostrono.
Name: Spressa Fiave
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Though it looks a little like a roast pork loin, Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa, is a smoked sheep's milk log from the Italian town of Crotone. Smoked cheeses almost all have the same flavor, smoke, so one has to look for other features, mainly texture, to distinguish them. The smoking process has not completely dried out this cheese. It still has a fairly moist texture but will not keep long . The ends of the log, dark from the smoking process, are a little dry and as Fleming says , "are to be avoided".
It is a very inexpensive cheese and for the price, worth checking out.
Name: Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $3.99/lb.
Grana is one of the best cheeses in the world. I would go so far as to say that I prefer it to Parmigiano Reggiano. I love it. I eat it by itself more often than dilluted in recipes. Seek out this cheese and buy it. It may not be a staple of your cheese shop but often during the holidays, especially those celebrated large by Italians around the world, the special cheeses are brought out. I first had it a dozen Christmases ago at the home of an Italian friend. Her mother brought/smuggled it from Italy and my first thought was, "Wow, this is the best Parmigiano I've ever had!" Turned out it was Grana Padano and this year I saw it in my local store for the first time. This is a special cheese.
Name: Grana Padano Trentino
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
Perhaps the number one question I hear people ask when served a soft, ripened cheese is, "Should I eat the rind?" My answer is "Sure, if you want to. But if you don't want, that's okay too." Taleggio is one of those soft cheeses and its rind can be a little intimidating. Usually you will find it cut from a square cheese into triangular pieces, giving it two fresh-cut, exposed sides. As Taleggio ripens it will soften and "melt" from these sides. For the mildest cheese, cut off the cheese the seeps from the sides and spread it on fresh bread or apple or pear. If you’re more daring start at the exposed point and cut all the way into the cheese to get a sandwich of soft cream between crusts of white rind. This delivers more aroma and stronger flavors. If it proves too much, go back to scraping out the milder Taleggio interior. If you enjoy it, keep working toward the wall of white-orange-blue outer rind until you can go no further. Remember though, you should not eat the paper label or the synthetic rind or any cheese, unless you're an omnivorous goat.
Taleggio dates back to before the 10th century and may be one of the oldest soft ripened cheeses. I love it. It is available both in a raw milk (unpasteurized) form as well as pasteurized. In general a raw milk cheese is undoubtedly better, more complex, more interesting.
Name: Raw Milk Taleggio
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/4/2006
Date Eaten: 12/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $11.99/lb.
Cacio de Roma is a solid, all-purpose, every-day sheeps milk cheese. It's good for sandwiches or munching. "Cacio" means cheese in regional Italian. This cheese of Rome has athe texture of a young provolone and clear flavors of sheep's milk. Though not the best cheese in Italy, it gets a solid B/B+ in my grade book. Still better than Sargento any day
Name: Cacio de Roma
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $8.99/lb.
Plassas is an odd cheese. It is either very new to the cheese world or not highly thought of, since I found not a single mention of it in any of the cheese books I own nor did the Internet turn up much other than a photo of the cheese on the manufacturer's web site. If the cheese is not well thought of I understand why.
First off Plassas is the opposite of salty, which mainly means "bland". It taste like some kind of cheese that was specially designed to be good for you, possibly made out of yoghurt or tofo, but the label assures us it is made from normal pasteurized cow's milk. The texture is dry and chewy. I really didn't like this cheese. If it was made to be healthy it won't help since I don't plan on eating it again. Maybe that was the intent.
Name: Plassas
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 12/8/2006
Date Eaten: 12/9/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99/lb.
Strelvio is an Italian cheese with a German accent. Coming from Alto Adige or SüdTirol, depending on whether one uses the Italin or German names for the most northern alpine province of Italy, Stelvio resembles more the cheeses to its north than its southern compatriots. The texture is soft and buttery. The taste hints of butter and nuts. It is really a delicious cheese that can be served like many other alpine cheeses, with fruit on a summer hike or with warm bread and wine on a chilly winter night.
Name: Stelvio
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Alto Adige
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
I am wrapping up a fifteen-in-a-row Italian cheese spree with Montasio Vecchio. "Vecchio" is Italin for "old" and this cheese from Friuli gets better with age. (An even older form bears the name "Stravecchio".) Aged but not crumbly Montasio shares flavors with parmesan and cheddar but texture a little like aged provolone. The taste has a hint of smoke that may come with age or improper storage in its life but not to bad effect. A delightful cheese.
Name: Montasio Vecchio
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/06/2006
Date Eaten: 12/08/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Named for the town in the Italian alps, Alta Badia is another of the northern Italian cheeses that more closely resemble those of Switzerland and Germany than those in Parma or Rome. With nutty, straw-like flavors and a slightly firm texture, the cheese is made only from whole milk of a few cattle herds. Alta Badia melts well and and pairs delicously with warm, fresh bread.
Name: Alta Badia
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Alta Adige
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/19/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
If Parmigiano-Reggiano is the King of Cheeses, Parmigiano-Reggiano Vacche Rosse is the Emperor. Made from a once near-extinct breed of red dairy cows, the Reggiana, Vacche Rosse tastes the way the cheese did in the days before World War II, richer, higher butter-fat content grana cheese produced in smaller batches. Can I taste the difference between modern Parmigiano-Reggiano made from more productive black and whites and the red cow product? It is hard to say. Red cow is damn fine. As wonderful as every other properly handled Parmigiano. Yes, I will say it is better. But...
Red Cow is expensive. I mean the most expensive cheese I've ever paid for, and there weren't any truffles or Sauterne inside. At Christmas time sales I found it for $31.99 per pound, well twice what I'd pay for a standard Parmigiano-Reggiano. Unless it's a very special occassion, like Christmas or the day I win the lottery, I will stick to the normal Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Name: Parmigiano-Reggiano Vacche Rosse, Parmigiano-Reggiano delle Vacche Rosse, Red Cow Parmesan Reggiano
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $31.99/lb.
It looks like Taleggio and could easily be mistaken for it in a dark nightclub. Both come from the Lombardy region of Italy, though Brescianella comes exclusively from the province of Brescia for which it is named. When ripe ("stagionata" means aged or ripened) Brescianella is oozingly runny with a pungent aroma, an orangish white rind on its way to blue, and a creamy center. The taste is sweet and creamy with a hint of funk.
I once was served a Taleggio risotto so I tried to make a similar dish with Brescianella. I made a traditional Risotto alla Milanese with arborio rice, garlic and chicken stock which I finished with dollops of Brescianella. The cheese melted well giving the rice a smooth, silky sheen. It was wonderful.
Name: Brescianella Stagionata or Aged Brescianella
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
Twenty-seven dollars and ninety-nine cents per pound! Costing as much as some aged prime rib, Piacentinu had better be a spectacular cheese. Sadly it is not. The high price is due in part to one of its ingredients, wild saffron, one of the world's most expensive spices. Saffron gives this pecorino a rich golden yellow color and whole peppercorns add the Dalmatian-like speckles. Basically this is bright yellow pecorino cheese from Sicily. The taste is not greatly improved by the pepper or crocus stigma. I can't think of a reason to buy it again.
Name: Piacentinu or Piacentino
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Sicily
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $27.99/lb.
A pecorino that tastes like a parmesan, Granitu is a delightful cheese. The documentation on this cheese is minimal. It is imported directly from Sardinia by my local gourmet store, A Southern Season, and the manufacturer's web site describes it only as "Formaggio Pecorino Dolce Stagionato", an aged sweet sheep's milk cheese. For a sheep's milk cheese it has an unusual golden straw-like color and a nuttiness found mostly in cow's milk cheeses. Where I would normally grate both parmesan and pecorino over pasta, I can now use only Granitu and come close to the same effect. Seek it out.
Name: Granitu
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized, part-skim
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Sardinia, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
According to a book on Italian cheese titled Italian Cheese, Caciotta Toscana is one of the most popular cheeses in Tuscany. Made from a blend of cow and sheep milk, the cheese is soft and pleasant. Sampling first only the center I thought the cheese okay but nothing extraordinary. Next I cut a bit of the washed white rind to taste along with mild center. It transformed the flavor entirely. The Tuscans know a thing or two about cheese.
Name: Caciotta Toscana
Type of Milk: cow and sheep, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Tuscany
Date Purchased: 1/24/2007
Date Eaten: 1/25/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
The cheeses made by the Santa Marina Formaggi company on the island of Sardinia are an odd lot. I can find out almost nothing about them on the Internet. Their website used to offer images of the cheeses they produce but now consists only of a single page and the words "organic cheess" in three languages. They also make the very good cheese Granitu and the very bad Plassas. Fortunately Monte Regale is also very good.
Do not confuse Monte Regale with Toma del Monte Regale, a soft raw cow's milk cheese from the Italian Piedmont. This Monte Regale, or "regal mountain", is made from raw sheep's milk and is a very fine grating or after dinner cheese. It has a clean pecorino taste with rich lingering flavors.
Name: Monte Regale
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Sardinia, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
The simplicity of this cheese's appearance masks deep, rich flavors. Lagrein Weinkase is not a Swiss or Germanic cheese as its name may suggest but a formaggio italiano. A pale yellow curd that has been pressed and soaked in local red wine, Lagrein Weinkase ( Weinkäse is German for "wine cheese") has flavors of herbs and wine, soft notes of garlic and spice. The texture is soft and buttery with the squat holes of a Havarti.
Fleming called it "an awesome cheese that packs a surprise."
Name: Lagrein Weinkase
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Alto Adige
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $21.99/lb.
Castelbelbo is brought to us by Caseificio dell' Alta Langa, the same folks who make one of my favorite cheeses, La Tur. It is not nearly the same quality as that fabulous cheese but no slouch compared to most you will find. Castelbelbo is a bloomy rind, soft cheese made from a blend of three milks. Light and creamy but not complex Castelbelo is a decent everyday sort of soft, spreadworthy Italian cheese. I served it on some great rosemary crackers that have become my new favorites for uncomplicated cheeses.
Name: Castelbelbo
Type of Milk: cow's, goat's and sheep's, pasterurixed
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy, Bosia, Caseificio dell' Alta Langa
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
"This cheese makes me think of Italy," our friend Ann said. I understand her point. Robiola is not one of the spectacular cheeses that is brought out on special occasions. It is a cheese for every day.
In short Robiola is Italian cream cheese. Soft, spreadable and a little bland, it is a good cheese for breakfast to spread on a croissant and have beside your cappucino. There are different producers of Robiola and the one I found was definitely a commercial cheese factory turning out a lesser quality cheese. There are suppsoedly better examples out there.
It is not a great cheese but if you've breakfasted in Italy a few times it may bring back memories.
Name: Robiola
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $4.99 each
Of all the cheeses I tasted this week Montegrappa was one of my favorites. Not surprising since it is very similar in flavor to another of my favorite everyday cheeses, Parrano. The flavors are nutty and sweet, the colors golden and straw-like. Delcious cheese!
Fleming described it as having ""substantive flavor". "Kind of 'parmesanny' but as sharp. A very very good hard cheese."
Its rich, nutty flavors can hold up against a bolder wine like a Barolo or Cabernet.
Name: Montegrappa or Montegrappa Aged
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Montegrappa
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $10.99/lb.
One definition of "Capraesque" from the online American Heritage Dictionary is "promoting the positive social effects of individual acts of courage". Capra Valtellina, then, I will call Capraesque since the making this cheese in an industrial age is courageous and eating it promotes a better society. I could also call the cheese "capricious" but that would be going a little far with the wordplay. "Capra" is an Italian word for "goat" where the milk of this fine cheese comes. "Valtellina" is the Valtelline Valley of Italy's Lombardy.
The cheese is firm and great for grating over a summer salad. It has a light, milky and generally pleasant flavor for a goat cheese. Not too strong or overpowering.
Name: Capra Valtellina
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
In the Gorgonzola flavor hierarchy Gorgonzola Cremificato stands in the middle. More flavorful than those cheeses labled Gorgonzola Dolce but less pungent than the more forceful Gorgonzola Piccante, cremificato is the creamiest and so far my favorite of the Italian blues. The softness of this cheese does not allow the blue veins to form throughout but instead produces rich puddles of ripe mold. It makes me think of a blue Taleggio if such a cheese existed. It spreads well and melts well making it great for cooking. I folded some into some warm pasta for a delicious afternoon lunch. A great blue cheese.
Name: Gorgonzola Cremificato
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisinal Cheese
Price: $17.75/lb.
I theorized at one time that Gorgonzola cheese's name may be derived from the similarity of its blue-green veins to the snakes in the hair of the Gorgon, Medusa. (I think I have seen Clash of the Titans more times than I should .) French author Emile Zola may alos have played a part in my ignorant, scholarly theories.
The name Gorgonzola in fact like many other Italian cheeses springs from the name of the town where it was said to have first been produced, Gorgonzola, on the outskirts of Milan. The piccante that follows this name may be familiar to people from Mexican menus and jars of salsa and indicates a sharpness the cheese possesses. Firmer than Gorgonzola Cremificato or Dolce, this cheese is a crumbler but still has a nice moistness to it. If you cook with Gorgonzola Cremificato for its creaminess by adding it to pasta or risotto you might finish the dish by crumbling the piccante over the top. Serve it in a green salad or with apples and pears next to sweet Italian dessert wines or prosecco.
Name: Gorgonzola Piccante
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $16.00/lb.
I don't hate Bianco Sardo di Moliterno but it is not anywhere near my favorite cheeses. The ini |
