Cheese Whiz

The cheeses and The Cheese Man


Week One Cheeses


I like to think I know my cheeses. There are few things I love more in life than a nice slice of extra sharp cheddar on a Triscuit. While this should probably say something about my life, I don't read that much into it. The other day my apartmentmate told me she realized my main food groups are "cereal, chocolate, cheese...and vegetables." The vegetables part was more or less tacked on--the main food categories in my life are the Three Cs. Cereal, chocolate and cheese make up about 90% of my diet. Perhaps a hyperbole, but the exaggeration isn't nearly as grand as compared to that of a normal person.

That being said, Italy is proving to be a bit of a microcosm of Michaela happiness. There was fair warning that this blog would be largely dedicated to "photography, puns, chocolate and cheese." As you could guess from the cheesy title, I'm about to tell about my cheese endeavors.

On of the first days here I went to the central market, not five minutes from my apartment. One cheese counter alone in the market was enough to leave me awkwardly gawking and drooling in awe as The Cheese Man continued to ask me what I would like. Tempted to say "tutti questo," all of it, I refrained. If only due to the mere selection, I could tell me and The Cheese Man--the man with the cheese, the keeper of the queso, the foreman of formaggio-- would become friends.

I decided the best way to tackle the most cheeses of Italy was not to buy exorbitant amounts and attempt to glut myself on cheese and cheese alone in a one-woman race against expiration dates, but to set up a cheese schedule. Week one, after much deliberation, was mozzarella and parmesan. Excellent choices. I planned to continue buying two NEW cheeses each week. Though, admittedly my pitfall is the fact that on top of week two's choices--provolone and asiago--I still decided it was imperative to also have mozzarella and parmesan on hand. They are now staples of my shelf in the fridge.

The mozzarella is on the top of the list for most delicious things I have ever eaten. It actually melted in my mouth. I decided if I was going to use the cliche, I owed it to myself as an English major to at least test this out. It ACTUALLY melted in my mouth. I put this on every panino and in every bowl of pasta I made until, sadly, I consumed it all. I am not above saying I stood many a night in my kitchen just eating pieces of this magnificently marvelous melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella. I really cannot speak highly enough about it; though, I doubt few if any will question the splendiferousness that is Florence Mozzarella.

Though, for the following weeks mozzarella I opted for the bufalo mozzarella. Not as impressed by any means. It had a tough outer layer of mozzarella and was an odd blend of tacky outside and almost regurgitated-looking inside.

Parmesan, the other choice for week one, was a fabulous one at that. Typically people don't eat slices of parmesan sans bread or something of the like, though this is not the case with Italian paremsan. Eating a shaving of it was actually quiet delicious. Due to the fact that the grater that came with the apartment is covered in rust, I suppose it's a rather good thing that this parmesan is good in slices. In any event, it went very well on just about everything.

Week two proved another winner for cheese choices. I decided provolone and asiago were both good options and therefore my two for the week...on top of buying more mozzarella and parmesan--but those don't count. Despite the selection of those two, I ended up deciding to make stuffed Sicilian zucchini in the middle of the week. This meant ricotta. As you cannot buy it in a block, I don't think it really counts as a cheese choice for the week. Whatever the case may be, I ended up with pounds of ricotta-partially due to my love of ricotta, partially due to my ineptitude with Italian and unwillingness to admit to the misunderstanding.

Either way, the ricotta was delicious. It was salty, but not as salty as what we have in America. The creaminess of it made it blend exceptionally well with the spinach, asiago and sauteed onions and chopped zucchini for the filling. The ricotta also went very well over pasta and vegetables. While writing this I realize I have been discussing my seemingly abundant ingestion of pasta as well. It should be noted that I have just finished my first pound of pasta. Go, self-restraint and tiny pots.

Back to the cheese. The asiago, while slightly disappointing because I got an end piece and thus it had the upsetting dried qualities on half of the chunk, was still a good purchase. It always seems like a bastard child of cheddar, montery jack and parmesan. I actually have no idea, but if I had to take a cheese genealogy guess for asiago, it would be cheddar, montery jack and parmesan. If not, this formaggio fusion should exist.

As provolone is one of my mother's favorite cheeses, I was brought up on the mantra "the stinkier it smells, the better it tastes." I think this only applies to cheese, but regardless this provolone did not smell putrid...how good could it be? The answer to that is very. It was slightly stringy and had several qualities of mozzarella. It had a more meek flavor than the provolone my mom buys, but this may just be due to personal preference and the unavailability of Land O Lakes in Italy. Still, this provolone was very very good. More mild than I'm accustomed to, but delectable nonetheless.

Concluding this chapter in my cheese chronicles, which ended up being vastly longer than anticipated, I bring you to Cheese Week 3. Other than spinning a cheese wheel, I see no way of determining il formaggio prossimo. Perhaps feta or mascarpone. Big decisions lie ahead. Perhaps at the end of this all in May when I've consumed 79% of Europe and my cholesterol is nearing my SAT scores, I will have determined the winner...The Big Cheese.