Italian Cheeses

Like Feta Cheese in Greece, Parmigiano Reggiano is the king of Italian cheeses.
An American chef remarked: “where would the world's cooking and cuisine be without the luxurious and decadent cheeses of Italy? From pizza to pasta, the world relies heavily on the artisan cheeses produced and imported from Italy”.

Most of us are familiar with some of Italy's everyday cheeses, but there are many varieties of Italian cheese with plenty of gastronomic potentials.

Asiago
Made from cow's milk, cooked and pressed and may be aged for up to one year. Many asiago cheese makers produce the mild, yet pungent and light-colored delicacy in the valleys of the Dolomite Mountains (also known as the Italian Alps) located in Cortina, Italy. Asiago is perfect for shredding, used as a table cheese to complement pasta, traditional risotto or soups, or thinly sliced and served atop a warm, crunchy baguette with fruit.

Fontina
One of the oldest cheeses in Italy, Fontina is dense, smooth and slightly elastic. The straw colored interior with its small round holes has a delicate nuttiness with a hint of mild honey. When melted, the flavor is earthy with a taste of mushrooms and a fresh acidity. Fontina is the primary ingredient of Italian fonduta and is a perfect table or dessert cheese. Fontina ripens in about three months.

Gorgonzola
Named for a town outside Milan where it was originally made, Gorgonzola is basically the Italian version of Blue Cheese. Normally Gorgonzola is creamier than the one found in the US where a drier version is preferred.
Gorgonzola goes well with fruit and wine and is a winner at cheese parties.

Mascarpone
A soft white, fresh cream cheese from the Lombardy region of Italy. In fact, it is not cheese at all, but rather the result of a culture being added to the cream skimmed off the milk, used in the production of Parmigiano. It is described as a curd cheese, although it is made in much the same way as yogurt. To make Mascarpone cheese tartaric acid (natural vegetable acid derived from the seed of the tamarind tree) is needed. After the culture has been added, the cream is gently heated, then allowed to mature and thicken. This straw-yellow, creamy, mild fresh cheese is compact, but supple and spreadable and is the main ingredient to famous Italian dessert tiramisu, as well as used for the preparation of certain dishes and sauces. It takes only a few days to ripen and has a fat content of 75 per cent.

Mozzarella
Mozzarella at its best is wonderful indeed. Mild, fragrant, delicate which when combined with tomato, fresh basil and good olive oil makes a summer meal in itself. Traditionally made in southern Italy of the milk of water buffalo (introduced into Italy from India in the 16th century) - it is now made world wide from cows milk, with varying degrees of success. Best when packaged in its own salty water.

Parmigiano Reggiano
Alongside mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano is one of Italy's most famous cheeses. Named after the town of Parma in northern Italy, Parmigiano is one of the world's most popular and widely-enjoyed cheeses. Milk used for Parmigiano is heated and curdled in copper containers but not before most of the milk's cream has been separated and removed. The curd is cut and then heated to 125 degrees F, all the while stirring the curd to encourage whey runoff. The curd is further cooked at temperatures of up to 131 degrees F, is then pressed in cheesecloth-lined moulds. After two days, the cheeses are removed and salted in brine for a month, then allowed to mature for up to two years in very humid conditions.
Parmigiano Reggiano has a shape of a drum with sticky, hard, yellow to orange rind. The wheels weigh around 75 lbs. and must be cut by a saw.
Parmigiano Reggiano carries its name emblazoned on the rind. The cheese is so valuable that trucks carrying a load of Parmigiano have been hijacked at gunpoint.

Pecorino
Cheese made from sheep's milk is known as pecorino (Pecora means sheep in Italian). Pecorino Romano is the name given to cheeses from the Rome area, Pecorino Sardo is from Sardinia, Pecorino Siciliano from Sicily. It is traditional, creamy, hard, drum-shaped cheese. It is made between November and late June. Pecorino is larger than most cheeses of this type and must be pressed. It takes eight to 12 months to mature, during which time it develops its characteristic flavor - salty, with a fruity tang. The best known is the Pecorino Romano. But, for us Sicilians there only Pecorino Pepato and Incanestrato.

Provolone
This mildly smoky cheese is made from cow's milk. It is traditional, creamy, stretched, curd cheese. This cheese appears in various shapes. The thin, hard rind is golden-yellow and shiny. Sometimes it is waxed. Provolone cheese can be of various types. Dolce (mild Provolone) is aged for two to three months, and it is supple and smooth with a thin waxed rind. It is generally used as a table cheese. Aged for six months to two years, it is darker with small holes and a spicy flavor.
The more yellow the color, the more ripe and flavorful. With a firm and slightly elastic texture, provolone is an excellent cheese for melting, or on sandwiches.

Ricotta
Whey cheese made from cow's or sheep's milk. It is a basin-shaped cheese, pure white and wet but not sticky. Good Ricotta should be firm, not solid and consist of a mass of fine, moist, delicate grains, neither salted nor ripened. It is white, creamy and mild and is primarily used as an ingredient in lasagna.
It is primarily made with cow's milk whey which is heated to 170 degrees F. Citric acid is added to encourage destabilization and separation and the temperature is quickly raised to 185 degrees F. Proteins from the whey separate rise and coagulate; the proteins are skimmed off and put in a wicker basket to drain for two days after which the "cheese" is ready for market.
There are three distinct varieties of ricotta: ricotta salata, ricotta piemontese and ricotta romana, a byproduct of Romano cheese production.
Ricotta is also used to make the classic Italian cheesecake.

Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a fairly new commodity. Before refrigeration, grottos and caves were used, due to their cool and stable temperatures that are sustained all year around; the perfect atmosphere for cheese makers in aging their cheeses.
The same instruments are used today in cheese production; wood shelves, water, salt, oil to clean the crusts, little hammers and cutting boards.
Making cheese is not a difficult technique; you don't have to be an alchemist to fulfill the cheese making dream; experimenting would do just fine. The three elements needed are; milk, rennet (natural complex of enzymes), and salt. Nothing else is needed to obtain cheese!

Cow's Milk
A cow can produce up to 10 gallons of milk daily for 200 out of 365 days of the year. That's a lot of milk! Nutritional elements present in milk vary according to the race of the cow, its diet, and the season of the year you milk her.
The percentage of water in cow's milk is 87%. Cow's milk also contains 3% to 5.5% lipids and fats depending on the cow’s race. It's rich in vitamins; A, B's 1, 2, 5 and 12, which unfortunately are partly destroyed with heat treatments.

Goat's Milk
There are some important differences between cow's milk and goats. Goat’s milk contains less than 3% fats and is generally easier to digest. The cheeses usually made from this milk are almost always fresh.

Sheep's Milk
Sheep's milk contains a quantity of fat that is double that to cow's milk or goat's milk-fantastic for making thick delicious yogurt! The same goes for its protein content.

Buffalo's Milk
Buffalo milk is very white and beautifully smooth. It is significantly lower in cholesterol and higher in calcium than cows, sheep’s or goat’s milk. And unlike the array of industrially produced soya and other cereal milks it is totally free of additives and chemical formulations.
Buffalo's milk has a yielding superior of 1.8 times that of cow's milk.
Meaning: for 100 liters/25 gallons of buffalo's milk, you may produce 24 kilos\52.8 lbs. of Mozzarella, compared to cow's milk which produces 13 kilos\28.6 lbs.

Greek Cheeses
There is no doubt that Feta is the star of Greek cheeses. Most people even in Greece use no other cheese more than feta. After Feta the popular ones are Kasseri, Kefalograviera, Manouri, Myzithra, Kefalotyri, Anthotyro, etc., and whether you visit a well known city restaurant or the most inexpensive tavern in a lonesome province village, they will practically always serve you Feta with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Rigani (oregano). Feta, is a sheep's milk cheese which has been for centuries, if not millennia, a staple food; a typical Greek family enjoys an average of 100 kilos (over 200 pounds) of Feta per year, so the European Union statisticians tell us.

There is a small concern throughout Greece in meeting local demand. As is typical of most cheeses, and there is no exception for Greece, the flavour of the sheep's milk cheese varies from region to region due to grasses and soil and each producer swears by their product and have their own loyal customers who will buy large quantities of the cheese.

The word FETA means a “slice” or a “piece” and refers to the way the curds are treated during the manufacturing process.

Typical Greek cheese shops sell many different types of cheese, made from sheep's, goat's or cow's milk. While not all the varieties, here is a sampling of the different Cheeses that are found in Greece:

Feta - a soft and slightly crumbly white sheep's milk cheese (produced in different regions)
Feta to cure properly must be stored in wooden barrels.
Anthotiros - Similar to mizithra; soft and unsalted with a full fat content (Crete)
Batzos - Sweet-sour, semi hard cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk (Naousa/Macedonia)
Halloumi - Spicy, high fat content hard cheese (Cyprus)
Kloro - Soft cheese from sheep's or goat's milk; khioro' vinsanto is preserved in wine (Santorini)
Formailla - Strong, cylindrical hard cheese made from sheep's milk (Parnassos)
Galotiri - Very strong, white, easily spread soft cheese (Thessaly)
Graviera - Aromatic hard cheese made from cow's milk, similar to Swiss cheese (Various regions)
Kasseri - Semi hard slightly tangy, yellow-white sheep's milk cheese (Various region)
Kathoura - Soft goat's milk cheese similar to mozzarella (Ikaria)
Kefalograviera - Tangy, pale yellow hard cheese made from cow's or sheep's milk (Various regions)
Kefalotiri - Tangy, salty hard cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk (Various regions)
Kopanisti - Tangy, easily spread blue-veined sheep's milk cheese (Cyclades)
Krasotiri Gilomeno - Hard sheep's milk cheese preserved in wine (Dodecanese)
Ladotiri - Hard cheese matured in oil (Zakinthos)
Manouri - Mild, soft sheep's milk cheese (Various regions)
Metsovone - Smoked hard cheese (Metsovon)
Mizithra - Soft sheep's milk cheese similar to manouri (Chios)
Petroto - Hard cow's milk cheese pressed between two stones (Tinos)
Pretza - Creamy, very strong soft cheese (Zakinthos)
San Michali - Tangy hard cheese made from cow's milk (Syros)
Sfelia - Strong cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk (Peloponnese)
Telemes - Like feta, but made from cow's milk (Various regions)
Tiri Tiraki - Cow's milk cheese (Tinos)
Touloumotiri - Strong soft cheese made from goat's milk (East Aegean)
Xinomizithra - A type of high fat Cottage cheese, usually tangy and salty (Cyclades)

One of my favorite dips is a combination of Greek and Sicilian ingredients which includes Feta

Greco Siciliano Dip
1 20 oz can cannellini beans, drained well
¼ cup sun dried tomato-in oil-drained
¼ cup capers – in brine
1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt and ground pepper
½ cup feta cheese - crumbled
½ tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbsp hot water

Chopped parsley for garnish

Place beans in a food processor, together with the sun dried tomato – drained of the oil, capers – drained of the brine, onion and garlic. Pulsate for a few seconds.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice, pulsing on and off for a few seconds.

Add feta cheese, cayenne pepper and pulsate until the puree is smooth.
If needed, loosen the consistency with the hot water.

Season with salt and pepper and pulsate to finish

Decorate with chopped parsley

Now that the cold days of Autumn are upon us we need warming as well as nourishing meals. One such meal is a lentil soup. Not a regular one but with a touch of tomato and a dash of red vinegar to spark it up.

Lentils Soup with Tomato

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 large can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups dried lentils ( picked and rinsed)
½ cup chopped Italian parsley
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
½ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon salt

a dash of red wine vinegar

Sauté onions and celery in olive oil in a large soup pot, for about 10 minutes

Add tomatoes to vegetables

Add chicken stock and lentils and bring to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Add ½ the parsley, along with the garlic, pepper and salt
Stir well and simmer for 25 minutes
Add the remaining parsley and dash of vinegar, simmer another 4 to 5 minutes and serve along with some rustic Sicilian bread

What is a Quiche?

What is a Quiche (English pronunciation: (kish)? As much as the imagination can travel back to the "horio" (the little village) or "poli" (city) depending where one’s origins are in Greece.
When the quiche rage started, the French quickly asserted that this creation was a classic French dish. Chefs of many countries were quick to create their own national pride, except the Greeks.

Greek Chefs and housewives knew that the Greeks have been making quiche for hundreds and possibly thousands of years, at last count. All the "pites" made by the Greek grandmothers (giagias) and mothers (myteres) are a form of quiche, except for the name. There is no argument that the quiche concoction is Greek. For what is a "pita"? Eggs? cream and/or milk, vegetables (spinach) and cheese baked in phyllo. So what did the French do? They removed the phyllo and placed the “pita” contents into a savory pastry!
Yes! As a matter of fact quite a few French dishes have a root or two in Greek cooking.

A Quiche is an oven baked dish that is a custard! Made from eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. Usually, the pastry shell is blind baked (baked by itself), before the other ingredients are added for a secondary baking period. Additional ingredients such as cooked chopped meat (bacon), vegetables (broccoli, asparagus), cheese (Fontina, Swiss/Gruyere) are added to the egg mixture before the mixture is baked.
Quiche is generally an open pie (it does not have a pastry cover); however, it may include arrangements on top such as sliced tomatoes or a decorative finish, such as asparagus.

In France quiche is often eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, depending on the type of composition, local customs and personal tastes. To make a ‘quiche’ you will need:

1 frozen pie shell or better 1 sheet from refrigerated package
2 tablespoons (¼ stick) butter
⅔ cup chopped shallots or red onions
5 cups sliced assorted mushrooms (chanterelle, shiitake, oyster, crimini or button)
4 large eggs
⅔ cup half and half
⅓ cup whole milk
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp freshly grated or ground nutmeg
1½ cups (packed) coarsely grated Fontina cheese (about ½ pound), divided in 2

Preheat the oven to 450° F

If you are using the refrigerated crust, unroll the crust completely. Press on to the bottom and sides of 9 inch deep pie dish and blind bake

Blind bake is an English term for baking a pie shell before it is filled. Add some weight, lay down a sheet of parchment or aluminum paper and pour beans as weight and bake until lightly golden brown, pressing on sides of the crust with the back of spoon if the crust begins to slide down sides of the dish, about 15-18 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350° F for the remaining baking

Meanwhile, melt the butter in large skillet over medium heat and add the shallots; sauté until they begin to soften, about 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms; sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until mushrooms are tender and beginning to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and spread out to cool.

Whisk the eggs the half and half and milk, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and a dash of nutmeg in large bowl and blend.
Stir in 1 cup Fontina cheese and the sautéed mushrooms.

Pour this filling into the crust, sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over the top of the quiche and bake until puffed and golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Allow to cool for 30-45 minutes cut into wedges and serve.