Beautiful Bleat

Welcome again to Prudence Dapperling's "Mouse in a Million" BIG CHEESE Blog!

Sheep. What do they remind you of? Wooly socks? Insomnia? Docility? Mutton? Lamb chops?

In Italy, sheep mostly mean CHEESE! (Just the thing I'm reminded of. Quite a lot actually.)

The milk of sheep is used to make a wonderfully flavorful cheese generally known in Italy by the name Pecorino (pen-koh-REE-noh), from the word "pecora" (sheep).

Pecorinos tend to be oily, as characteristic of sheep's milk cheeses. Sheep's milk has a very high butter fat content, which is why the cheeses made from it taste so good.

The best Pecorinos are produced in the regions of Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, and Lazio in central and south central  Italy; and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia off Italy's west coast.

Of all the heavenly Pecorinos these regions have to offer, my personal favorite hails from Tuscany. Called Pecorino Toscano (ton-SKAH-noh), it can be young and un-aged, creamy and smooth and bursting with flavor.  If it comes from Siena, it's most likely rubbed with tomato paste and aged for about six months, making it firm, off-white in color, sort of flaky, and rich with the flavor of nuts and herbs. From the town of Pienza, it can be a Peperino infused with dried, hot peppers for a more piquant cheese experience. Or it might be rubbed with olive oil to yield a very nutty, rich flavor of herbs and grasses and wild flowers. Yum!

Pecorinos are hardly ever used as an ingredient in other dishes, so intense and assertive is their flavor. The cheese is a lovely accompaniment to other foods, such as salami, prosciutto, olive, fruit, crusty bread, or grated in salads.

Wherever the origin of your Pecorino, enjoy it with your antipasto favorites. You'll be sure to love it!

And now for this commercial break... Darklings  Buy it here!

A Fontina of Flavor!

Welcome to another installment of Prudence Dapperling's "Mouse in a Million" BIG CHEESE Blog!

Tonight, it's back to northern Italy and the province of Piedmont to explore another beautiful cheese--

Fontina d'Aosta (fawn-TEE-nah DAOW-stah)

True Fontina d'Aosta is an Italian semi-firm cheese with the deep, rich flavor found in cheeses made from top quality raw cow's milk.  This Fontina is firm--never wobbly, shiny, or bulging, like some cheeses that are marketed as "Fontina" but are far from it.

Not to say that some Fontina-style cheeses can't be quite fine. Some Italian varieties, such as Galbani and Mauri (from Lombardy), and Carmognola (from Piedmont), are very good, indeed.

Fontina mixes beautifully for use in cooking. For example, Fontina is renowned as the main ingredient in fonduta, the Italian delicacy similar to Swiss or French cheese fondue. While fondue is eaten from a communal pot using bits of bread, meat, and vegetables stuck on the end of long-handled forks, fonduta is whipped and poured onto individual plates filled with rice, boiled potatoes, polenta (Italian corn meal mush), and cooked or raw vegetables. Fonduta combines Fontina with butter, eggs, and white truffles to produce a dish of unsurpassed deliciousness.

Because Fontina combines so well with other ingredients, it's easy to forget that it's also one of those "good for all occasions" cheeses that can stand alone or be eaten with a combination of meats and fruit. Try it for lunch sometime with a nice crusty loaf and a glass of red wine. And enjoy!

And now for this commercial break... Darklings  Buy it here!

Softly, Softly, Nice and Cheesy: Part Last

Yet again...Prudence Dapperling's "Mouse in a Million" BIG CHEESE Blog!

And for my final offering on Italy's "soft" side I bring you...

Mozzarella (moh-tsah-REH-lah).

Some of the best Mozzarella cheese comes from the milk of the water buffalo.

Water buffalo have lived in the region to the south and west of Naples (in the province of Campania) since the 2nd century A.D. Mozzarella was made from their milk in the hills near Salerno until the 1940s, when the animals were destroyed by Nazis retreating the region during the Second World War. After the war, Italy brought in more water buffalo from India. Since then, these herds have expanded, and now a thriving water-buffalo milk industry exists... which ensures a plentiful supply of Mozzarella di bufala.

While Mozzarella can also be made from cow's milk, Mozzarella di bufala is considered by many to be the better of the two. It's sweeter and has a greater depth of flavor than the cow variety. It also has a slightly different color... sort of a greenish-yellow shade. Whether it's made of cow's or water buffalo's milk, fresh Mozzarella is considered a pulled, or "spun", curd cheese.

If you want a Mozzarella with a longer shelf life (say a week or so), buy it salted. Salted not only keeps longer, it's good to eat all by itself with some crusty bread and a nice red wine. The unsalted version doesn't last nearly as long and is usually confined to use in cooking.

Mozzarella features prominently in a number of Italian delicacies, such as caprese--a lovely dish comprising slices of the cheese alternated with ripe tomato slices, fresh basil, freshly ground black pepper, and drizzled with extra-virgin oil--or as the main treat in an antipasto.  Yum!

Now you know: Mozzarella is way beyond that rubbery, flavorless stuff found on pizzas. Moist, sweet, slightly salty, milky, buttery, and nutty, it's one truly marvelous cheese!