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Guide: The Great Italian Cheeses

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Margi Cintrano View Drop Down
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    Posted: 15 March 2012 at 01:52
 
Written by: Margaux Cintrano
 
THE GREAT ITALIAN CHEESES
 
PARMESANO REGGIANO ...
 
There is only one Designation of Origin for Parmesano Reggiano, and this cheese is produced in the Italian province of Emilia Romagna, in the town of Parma and in part of the Mantua, in Lombardia province. The cheese is made from pasture grazed dairy cows so it is created between mid April and November when fresh pasture is plentiful.
 
Please note: The cheese called "Parmesan" in the USA, or elsewhere, is NOT Parmesano Reggiano from Parma, Emilia Romagna, Italia.
 
All Parmesano Reggiano is aged or cured by Italian Designation Regulation Council law, and has to mature for 14 months prior to sale. Many connoisseurs, however, have a penchant for the 3 year old cured cheeses. These 3 year olds are called Stravecchio and take on a deep golden straw hue.
 
This cheese is commonly used for grating creating depth to pasta dishes, Bolognese Ragù meat tomato sauce, soups, meatloaf and meatballs and gratinéed ( au gratin ) cheese topped vegetables.
 
However, it is lovely and used in Italian cheese platters in Parma and major towns and cities of Emilia Romagna, which is located in the northeast of Italia and its east coast lies on the Adriatic. Rimini, is the Miami Beach of Italia.
 
MOZZARELLA DI BUFALA ...
 
Mozzarella di bufala is made from water buffalos, not the American Bison. True, there is a cow produced type of Mozzarella that is produced called Fior di Latte, and this cow made cheese is sold for export and is alot cheaper than the traditional original water buffalo cheese possessing Designation of Origin.
 
Bufala di Mozzarella is produced in the province of Battipaglia, just south of Naples, and north of Naples in Caserta, Campania on the west coast of Italy. Fresh water buffalo milk curds are stretched in hot water, then the mass is shaped into oval egg shaped balls or round balls and trecce, braids. This stretching of the curds, is essential in the process providing the springy texture and layered structure that is so much its character. Along with texture, the tangy fragrance of buffalo´s milk really comes into its own, and true mozzarella is quite complex. It contains a mossy aroma that hails from the marshy waters where the water buffalo graze.
 
Imported mozzarella is usually sold in a double plastic bag filled with brine or water. The brine variety is much better for maintaining longer shelf life for this cheese´s true flavor.
 
You can recognize a good mozzarella by its thin, glossy skin, and springy texture, porcelain color, and fresh milky aromas.
 
Fresh mozzarella di bufala is an excellent eating cheese in a salad called Caprese and with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and warm oven bread for breakfast, as an antipasto and topping of pizza with basil and tomato or arugula. Due to its´high price, it is not commonly used in cooking.  
 
 ASIAGO ...
 
Many centuries ago, Asiago was produced from ewe´s milk in the Alti plano d´Asiago ( high hill country ) north of Vicenza in the Veneto region, in northeast Italia. Today, this cheese is a dairy cow variety. Asiago´s Designation of Origin has extended to the region of Trentino Alto Adige and the most traditional type is called ASIAGO D´ALLEVO which translates to bring up and refers to the care taken in the preparation and raising of the dairy cows in the process of creating Asiago.
 
This cheese is created from Swiss Brown cows and when young, three to five months, and is a sweet and bland good salad cheese, lovely with pears, arugula and a vinaigrette and in cheese platters with fruit, wine and bread, the Italian trilogy and adage. It becomes alot sharper as it ages, and matures.
 
PECORINO AND FIORE SARDO ...
 
For the visitor to Italy, there are few rural sights more lovely, than a rolling hilly landscape dotted with forest and umbrella pines, and the fading rose of an ancient Villa ( manor house ). To the knowledgeable home gourmet or professional chef, a flock of sheep represent the finest pecorino. The appellations for Pecorino Romano include: The Po Valley, Piemonte, Lombardia and the islands of Sicilia and Sardinia. Pecorino Toscano is a pungent aged cheese produced in Tuscany and Fiore Sardo, the King of this genre is Fiore Sardo, produced only in Sardinia in the hill country.  
 
Pecorino Fiore Sardo is the finest and most expensive. The fierce complexity, of sharp bitey flavor is aged in caves and is 100% ewe´s milk, 100% latte di pecora.
 
The finest and the most magnificant of this genre is produced by a family called the Dettori´s. It takes 500 quarts of ewe milk to produce 19 rounds of Fiore Sardo. This farm is located in the most isolated quarter of the Gennargentu Mountain Range. The Dettori´s have 1.000 sheep which graze on some 670 acres of meadows, and their dairy is a humble stucco construction. The bulk of the work takes place in just one work room.
 
For centuries, shepherds have been making Fiore Sardo from lamb´s rennet and raw sheep´s milk.
Unlike most cheeses, there is no starter culture of bacteria to convert the lactose to lactic acid.
The curds must be set in two large cauldrons. blackened at the bottom from extensive use over the decades. This rusticity is enforced by the Regulatory Council Designation of Origin. DOP is Denomination of Protection.
 
The Dettori Farm was built in the 1870s. The three sons, Franco, Piero and Luciano and the robust Father Giovanni, who has been working with his father and grandfather before him, had shown his four racks of 300 cheese rounds draped with organ lamb coverings. The rinds had begun to change color to a lovely terracotta burnt sienna.
 
Just outside Oiena, in the Barbagia country is arguably one of the best places  to dine on the island.
 
For those interested in purchasing in the USA, Fiore Sardo with the Dettori Label:
 
1) Italian Deli: Di Palo´s - 200 Grand Street, Little Italy, Manhattan ( 212. 226 1033 )
 
 
3) Formaggio Kitchen :  888. 212. 3224   
 
TALEGGIO ...
 
Buttery, creamy Taleggio possesses a flat square shape with an amber rind when aged. This is a cow variety that we Italians call "Stracchino" in The Taleggio Valley in Lombardia,  and with a limited production in Piemonte and Veneto in northern Italy.
 
Taleggio is a washed rind cheese and it is stored in a humid environment and washed with salted water for 5 to 6 weeks while the cheese ages or cures. The interior of a young Taleggio is the color of pale blonde straw. The Texture is creamy soft and springy without being rubbery.
 
With maturity, the soft rind develops into an orange caramel crust and the cheese takes on a white truffle fragrance and a smokey perfume. Lovely.
 
This cheese is often served with Bresaola, a dry cured beef from the Alpine region and thus, the Taleggio is spread on toasted bread.
 
 
Kind Regards,
Margaux Cintrano.
 
 
Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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