Rustic artisanal Italian cheeses at a market in Rome, Italy. Romaoslo / Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro
Italian Cheeses are a huge part of Italian meals.
There is no formal fixed cheese course in Italian dining, as there is in French dining. In Italian cuisine, a cheese can be served before a meal, after, or more likely during, as an ingredient, topping or garnish to many varied food items, more so than many other cuisines such as French or German. Italians never serve cheese with fish or seafood, though: not for any religious or dietary reasons, just out of preference and tradition.
Their use in cooking makes Italian cheeses perhaps the world’s most popular cheeses, owing to the demand for mozzarella on pizzas and Parmesan on top of pasta, etc. It may also make Italian cheeses the most imitated, with many imitation Italian-style cheeses being made abroad in places such as the U.S. and Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Wisconsin, and Australia.
The four most popular Italian cheeses for grating as an ingredient or garnish are Asiago, Grana Padano, Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) & Pecorino, with Parmesan leading the pack.
Italian cheese makers still tend for the most part to use milk from their own areas, contributing to a strong local character to the cheeses. In Northern Italy, they will use milk from goats that have grazed on the vegetation of the more temperate north, and in the south of Italy, the goats will have grazed on the different vegetation in that hotter climate.
The cheeses are mostly coagulated with rennet, though some use vegetable coagulants such as cardoon.
Types of Italian Cheeses
Italian cheeses can be grouped in many different ways including by how you use the cheese, by the region of Italy it is from, whether it is a soft, firm or hard cheese, or, by the type of milk used. The cheeses can also be classified based on how the curd was processed (cooked versus uncooked, pressed versus unpressed), and how long the cheese was aged.
Types of Italian Cheese by Fat Content
Italian cheeses can be classified by fat-content:
- full-fat;
- semi-fat; or
- skim.
Parmesan is a skim-milk cheese; (genuine) mozzarella is a full-fat cheese.
Types of Italian Cheese by Firmness
Firmness refers to the moisture content of the cheese. Hard cheeses will be gratable; soft cheeses will be spreadable or spoonable.
- firm (aka hard) cheeses (formaggio duro, formaggio a pasta dura);
- semi-firm (aka semi-hard) cheeses (formaggio a pasta semidura; formaggio semiduro); or
- soft (formaggio a pasta molle; formaggio morbido).
Categorizing Italian cheeses by milk type
Four types of milk are used in Italian cheeses, depending on the geographic area where those livestock have been traditionally raised.
Cow’s Milk Italian Cheeses
Cow’s milk cheeses are called “vaccini” cheeses, from the Italian word for cow, “vacca“.
Cow’s milk cheeses are typically made in Northern Italy, i.e. regions of Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, The Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Val d’Aosta.
Sheep’s Milk Italian Cheeses
Sheep’s milk cheeses are called “pecorini” cheeses, from the Italian word for sheep, “pecora“, or “latte ovino“, “latte” meaning milk and “ovino” from the Latin word for sheep, “ovinus“.
- In central Italy, sheep’s milk cheeses are made in Abruzzo, Latium, Molise, The Marches, Tuscany, and Umbria;
- In southern Italy, sheep’s milk cheeses are made in Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, and Sicily.
Goat’s Milk Italian Cheeses
In Italian, goat’s milk cheeses are called “caprini” cheeses, from the Italian word for goat, “capra” (think of the English zodiac word, “capricorn.”). These cheeses are often a mixture of goat’s and cow’s milk (see also “Mixed Milk” a bit further below.)
These cheeses are made in various regions of Italy from south to north, but in particular Abruzzo, Calabria, Liguria, Molise, Piedmont, and Trentino.
Buffalo Milk Italian Cheeses
Buffalo Milk cheeses are called “bufalini” cheeses, from the Italian word for buffalo, “bufalo“.
In Italy, they are made in Lazio, Campania, and in a small area near Foggia, Puglia.
Mixed Milk Italian Cheeses
Mixed milk cheeses are referred to as “latte misto” cheeses, from the Italian words “latte” meaning “milk” and “misto” meaning mixed.
When this mixture occurs in the production of a cheese, the producer will say: this mixing is not done surreptitiously or randomly. The mixing will be a traditional feature of the cheese in question, not a modern cost-saving measure.
Italian goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses can be a mixture of those milks with cow’s milk. Some cheeses, such as Robiola valle Belbo, will be a mixture of all three: goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, and cow’s milk.
Some Italian Cheeses
Asiago is a northern Italian cheese made from cow’s milk. There are two versions, a traditional artisanal version used as you would Parmesan and a modern, industrial version used as you would use a cheddar.
...Bel Paese is a mild, creamy Italian semi-soft cheese with a bit of a tang to it. Varieties flavoured with herbs are available for use on cheese boards.
...Bitto is an Italian cheese that can be a semi-hard or a hard cheese, depending on how long it was aged. When young it can be shredded; when aged longer, it can be grated like Parmesan.
...Bocconcini cheese is small balls of mozzarella, about the size of chicken eggs. They are usually sold in tubs, packed in water to keep them fresh.
...Burrini is a firm, pear-shaped, mild Provolone cheese with butter in the middle. You slice it so that you get butter and cheese in a slice.
...Caciocavallo cheese is a version of mozzarella cheese. It can be used fresh or aged. It is often shaped like a gourd, and hung to cure.
...Casu Marzu is a cheese made in Sardinia, Italy. It is Pecorino Sardo cheese which has been colonized by fly maggots. It has a very strong, pungent burning taste.
...Fontina cheese is a firm, light-yellow cheese with tiny holes and a mild, nutty taste. When young, Fontina can be used as a “table cheese.” When old, it becomes a grating cheese.
...Gorgonzola cheese is an Italian blue cheese made from pasteurized cow’s milk. Some versions are tangy and crumbly; milder versions tend to be creamy. Gorgonzola becomes very mild and sweet when used in cooking.
...Grana Padano cheese is a hard grating cheese that you use like Parmesan. Though less expensive, it is less well-known than Parmesan which has had better marketing. In Italy, however, Grana outsells Parmesan 10 to 1.
...Mascarpone is a pale cream-coloured soft, spreadable cream cheese made from cream from cow’s milk. It’s made using citric acid. It has a light taste with a slight tang, and a rich, silky texture. It makes very rich sauces.
...Mozzarella is a fresh, stringy Italian cheese made from water buffalo milk made in pure white balls. The cheese has a creamy texture and a slight fresh tang to it, but otherwise little other taste. If it has a sour taste, it is getting old.
...Parmesan cheese is a hard, highly-flavourful cheese typically used in small amounts to add flavour accents as a garnish on dishes.
...Pecorino is the name given to all Italian cheeses made from sheep’s milk. The rinds have a herringbone pattern which used to be caused by the cheese being moulded in presses made of strands of grass. Now, even though grass presses are no longer used, because the marks are expected, they are deliberately impressed by […]
...Pecorino Ginepro is a specialty pecorino cheese lightly flavoured with juniper berries. It is aromatic, and is eaten in small amounts as part of an appetizer platter, shavings on top of dishes, etc.
...Pecorino Pepato is a sheep’s milk cheese which has crushed black peppercorns stirred in. The cheese mellows the flavour of the peppercorns, making them less overwhelming.
...Pecorino Romano is a creamy-white cheese made from sheep’s milk. It’s often just called “Romano”. The aged version seems a bit like Parmesan, but grates more finely and has a sharper, saltier taste.
...Pecorino Sardo is a sheep’s milk cheese from Sardinia, Italy. The taste is a balance of salt and sweet, and is more sheep’s-milk-tasting than other Pecorino cheeses.
...Pecorino Siciliano cheese is made from sheep’s milk. The raw milk is curdled with lamb’s rennet, moulded and salted. The cheese may be sold fresh, or aged.
...Pecorino Toscano cheese is a mild-tasting sheep’s milk cheese Italy. Young cheeses can be used as a table cheese; old ones can be used for grating.
...Provolone is a semi-firm Italian cheese. Inside, it is ivory-coloured with a mild smokey flavour that sharpens as it ages.
...Quartirolo is a soft, crumbly Northern Italian cheese with a slightly sour tang. There are fresh and aged versions.
...Ricotta cheese is a soft fresh cheese. It is frequently used as an ingredient in dishes, for instance savoury pies, or when stuffing pasta.
...Scamorza cheese is a semi-soft white cheese that is like a firm, drier mozzarella. There are fresh and aged versions of it, as well as smoked and unsmoked.
...Squacquerone is an Italian fresh cream cheese with a tangy taste. It is very white, soft, fluffy and spreadable. It melts easily and is good as a filling for pasta, breads, and desserts.
...Taleggio cheese has a taste ranging from milk to sharp depending on age. The edible rind is strong tasting. Inside, the cheese is semi-firm, becoming runny as it ages.
...Treccia cheese is a braided version of mozzarella or scamorza cheese. It is pale yellow, and soft and stringy.
...Zufi cheese is a type of ricotta. It is creamy and white, and is used as a spread.
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