Molto Gusto_ Easy Italian Cooking - Mario Batali [17]
VENTO D’ESTATE is a cow’s-milk cheese that is aged in nests of freshly mown hay in wine barrels, both of which contribute to its unique flavor and aroma (its name means “summer breeze”). Made near Treviso, in the Veneto, by Antonio Carpendo, it has only been produced since the late 1990s. With a firm but crumbly texture, it has a rich, somewhat sharp taste and goes well with a robust red wine.
CACIOTTA cheeses, which may be made with ewe’s and/or cow’s milk, are produced in Tuscany, Umbria, and New York State. The American one is made by Jody Sommers from cow’s milk, and it is rubbed with tomato paste before it is aged for 100 days. The Tuscan and Umbrian ones are made from a blend of cow’s and ewe’s milk and are often the vehicles for flavorings such as truffles—go for the plain ones, please.
BAITA FRIULI is an unpasteurized cow’s-milk cheese, aged for roughly 5 months, from Italy’s Friuli-Venezia region, near the Slovenian border. It has a fruity, slightly spicy flavor similar to that of a good Swiss Gruyère. It can be served as part of a cheese plate or used for cooking, in a fondue or for grating.
BRA cheeses, made with unpasteurized cow’s milk, are named for the town of Bra in Italy’s Piedmont, but they are not made there—they are actually produced on the Cuneo plains. They are sold either duro (firm) or tenero (soft or tender), and the BRA TENERO we like is semi-soft and mild.
UBRIACO, a cow’s-milk cheese from the Veneto, is produced by the same dude who makes Vento d’Estate. It is aged in red wine (ubriaco means “drunk”), and it is moist but firm, with a somewhat sweet but sharp and delightfully spicy flavor. Its granular texture is similar to Parmigiano, with an off-the-cuff scent of pineapple.
CASTEL ROSSO, an ancient cow’s-milk cheese from Piedmont, is a semi-firm cheese with a crumbly texture and a mild, slightly tangy flavor that whispers mushrooms to me. Smoother in texture and softer under heat than its aged cousin Castel Magno, this champ begs to sing melted on a bruschetta or a pizza bianca.
BRUNET is a Piemontese fresh goat’s-milk cheese with a rich, slightly tangy flavor and a creamy, almost silky, texture. It works very well as a light player on a plate with three or four more intense cheeses.
MOZZARELLA DI BUFALA has more flavor than cow’s-milk mozzarella; it is sweet with a slight tang and a creamy, milky bite (although some artisanal producers are now using cow’s milk for their mozzarella, with slightly different but very good results). Mozzarella di bufala is available salted or unsalted; it can also be smoked.
JOE’S DAIRY MOZZARELLA, made at 156 Sullivan Street in New York’s Soho by our pal Anthony Campanelli, is the epitome of fresh handmade mozzarella in the USA: clean, fresh, and tasting only of milk. We use it on pizzas that need a touch of lactic love but do not need any more moisture, like that exuded by a mozzarella di bufala from Campania. Check out the store for other great snackage as well.
BURRATA, like mozzarella, is a “pulled-curd” cheese, but this cow’s-milk (traditionally made with buffalo milk) cheese has a surprise inside: the cheese is shaped into a pouch around a rich, creamy, melting center of mozzarella curds mixed with cream.
STRACCHINO is in fact a family and style of cow’s-milk cheeses from Lombardy, also made in the Piemonte and Veneto. The name refers to cattle that are tired (straco in dialect, stanco in Italian) after the end-of-summer trek down from their mountain-grazing vacations. Sometimes called stracchino di crescenza, or just crescenza, these cheeses have a rich, acidic flavor with a soft, almost runny texture at room temperature. Both Taleggio and