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.
Italian Cheeses
Bel Paese Cheese
This is a mild, Italian semi-soft cheese that is now also made in the US. It is a creamy, ivory-coloured cheese with a bit of a tang to it. It is usually sold in small wheels, though larger ones are available. Varieties flavoured with herbs are now available for use on cheese boards. See also:…
Bitto Cheese
Bitto can be a semi-hard or a hard cheese, depending on how long it was aged. Bitto Cheeses are sold anywhere from 40 days to 3 years in age. When young, the cheese is called “giovane” (which means “young” in Italian.) It is soft, white-coloured and has a sweet taste similar to a gruyère. As…
Bocconcini Cheese
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 Cheese
Burrini is a firm, pear-shaped, mild Provolone cheese with butter in the middle. It is made in the areas of Basilicata, Calabria and Molise, in southern Italy. To make the cheese, the curd is spin, then the cheese is moulded around a small piece of unsalted butter, and ripened for a few weeks. For export,…
Caciocavallo Cheese
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
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
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
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
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.
Italian Cheeses: Types and Uses
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…
Mascarpone Cheese
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 Cheese
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
Parmesan cheese is a hard, highly-flavourful cheese typically used in small amounts to add flavour accents as a garnish on dishes.
Pecorino Cheese
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 Cheese
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 Cheese
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 Cheese
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 Cheese
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
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
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 Cheese
Provolone is a semi-firm Italian cheese. Inside, it is ivory-coloured with a mild smokey flavour that sharpens as it ages.
Quartirolo Cheese
Quartirolo is a soft, crumbly Northern Italian cheese with a slightly sour tang. There are fresh and aged versions.
Ricotta Cheese
Ricotta cheese is a soft fresh cheese. It is frequently used as an ingredient in dishes, for instance savoury pies, or when stuffing pasta.