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Named for a town outside Milan where it was originally made, Gorgonzola is basically the Italian version of Blue Cheese.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.
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.
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