People & Place
Italian Cheeses
Italian Cheeses brings together guides to individual names and the questions that help you choose your next read. Explore the articles below by following a familiar name or comparing names you have seen on a label.
Start here: Parmigiano Reggiano, then Mozzarella.
Start here
Parmigiano Reggiano
Break into a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano and flakes fall away, revealing a finely granular cheese, pale straw to straw in colour.
Grana Padano
Break a piece from a wheel of Grana Padano and watch the pale interior fall into fine grains and flakes.
Pecorino Romano
Take a piece of Pecorino Romano and let the salt announce itself.
Pecorino Toscano
Your knife glides through a young Pecorino Toscano.
Pecorino Sardo
Take a slice of Dolce: white, soft, sweet and aromatic.
Pecorino Siciliano
Look closely at a wheel of Pecorino Siciliano and you can trace the weave of a rush basket.
Fiore Sardo
Near the fire, young Fiore Sardo rests on a reed rack, drying and taking on smoke.
Everything in this section
- GorgonzolaSpread a little Gorgonzola Dolce, then break off a piece of Piccante.
- Mozzarella di Bufala CampanaYour knife slips through an exceptionally thin skin.
- MozzarellaPull apart a fresh mozzarella and watch its layers loosen.
- Fior di LatteYour knife slips through the smooth white surface.
- Mozzarella di Gioia del ColleYour knife meets a little spring, then slips through.
- BurrataYour knife slips through the delicate pouch.
- Burrata di AndriaYour knife parts the shell, and cream spills around hand-shredded strands of stretched curd.
- RicottaLook into the heated whey and you can watch delicate white curds gathering at the surface.
- Ricotta SalataTomato sauce clings to the pasta.
- Ricotta RomanaSmall white flakes rise through hot sheep’s whey.
- MascarponeYour spoon slips through the soft cream layer of a tiramisù.
- TaleggioCut into Taleggio and the rind makes its presence felt first.
- FontinaIn the Aosta Valley’s humid ageing rooms, Fontina wheels are turned, salted and brushed as their brown rinds slowly deve
- AsiagoPut a slice of Asiago fresco beside a piece of stagionato and the difference is there before you taste.
- ProvolonePicture more than 30 kg of cheese hanging in cords, their marks pressed into its smooth rind.
- Provolone ValpadanaLook up: pears, melons and long salami shapes hang overhead, their golden rinds lightly marked by cords.
- Provolone del MonacoTwo people, one mass of curd, and a good deal of twisting.
- CaciocavalloTwo cheeses hang astride a rail, each tied at the neck.
- Caciocavallo SilanoLook up: pairs of cheeses hang over poles, their smooth bodies held by cords.
- ScamorzaIn the hills around Montella, Bagnoli Irpino and Nusco, pairs of scamorza hang from raffia ties.
- MontasioAt the cheese counter, a cut face of Montasio gives you something to study: little holes scattered through a pale straw-
- PiaveCut into young Piave and your knife meets pale, supple cheese.
- CastelmagnoThe curd has drained.
- RobiolaA velvety surface gives way to a white centre.
- Toma PiemonteseFirst, the cream rises.
- BraPut a pale, yielding slice of Bra Tenero beside a firmer piece of Duro.
- Quartirolo LombardoPicture the end of September in Lombardy: cattle coming down from the mountain pastures, with a last flush of fresh gras
- Stracchino and CrescenzaA little bread, a soft white spread, and milk is the first flavour you meet.
- BittoOn Lombardy’s summer mountain pastures, milking ends and the clock starts.
- RagusanoTwo hefty blocks hang from ropes across a wooden support.
- Casu MarzuLift su tappu, the lid cut into a wheel of Casu Marzu, and a spoon may be more useful than a knife.
- Robiola di RoccaveranoIn the hills around Roccaverano in Piedmont, goats browse woodland and shelter from the summer heat.
- StrachituntEvening’s cool curd meets the next morning’s warm curd in a mountain dairy in Val Taleggio, Bergamo, Lombardy.
- Casatella TrevigianaA glossy, pale cylinder sits beside your bread, its rind almost impossible to find.
- Monte VeroneseTake a bite of young Monte Veronese: yoghurt, fresh butter and fresh grass might greet you.
- Squacquerone di RomagnaA warm piadina, a spoonful of Squacquerone di Romagna, and any ambition to cut a neat wedge quietly disappears.
- Puzzone di MoenaTwice a week, someone turns a wheel and wets it with lukewarm water, sometimes lightly salted.
- RascheraPicture a substantial square of cheese travelling on muleback.
- Valle d'Aosta FromadzoWatch the cream gather on the surface of resting milk.
- Valtellina CaseraPicture milk arriving from several farms, ready to come together in one communal dairy.
- Casciotta d'UrbinoYour knife slips through a thin, straw-coloured rind into something pale and tender.
- Formaggio di Fossa di SoglianoDown go the cloth bags of cheese, into sandstone pits beneath the hills around Sogliano al Rubicone.
- Canestrato PuglieseBefore you reach for the knife, look at the rind.
- CaciottaYour knife slips into a small, low Italian wheel.
- Vastedda della valle del BelìceHands fold white sheep’s milk curd through hot water.
- Piacentinu EnneseCut a golden slice and out come the peppercorns: whole, black and impossible to overlook against the saffron yellow chee
- Salva CremascoCut into a square of Salva Cremasco.
- StelvioCut through Stelvio's yellow to orange-brown rind and the knife meets supple, pale yellow cheese.
- MurazzanoA small, milk-white wheel is ready to leave the dairy after just four days of maturation.
- Pecorino CrotoneseRun your fingers over a wheel of Pecorino Crotonese and you can follow the basket’s imprint across its rind.
- SilterPicture a wheel resting on a wooden shelf, its work far from finished.
- Spressa delle GiudicarieCut into young Spressa delle Giudicarie and you find a supple paste beneath its ochre rind.
- Formaggella del LuineseAbove the valley meadows around Luino, goats graze the wooded slopes of northern Lombardy.
- Provola dei NebrodiCut into one variety of Provola dei Nebrodi and a whole green lemon appears at its heart.
- Pecorino di PiciniscoCut into young Scamosciato and let its mild, mountain pasture aromas lead the way.
- Pecorino di FilianoLook closely at a wheel of Pecorino di Filiano: the basket has left its signature in the rind.
- Nostrano ValtrompiaFirst, the scrape of the rind.
- Formai de Mut dell'Alta Valle BrembanaLook at the freshly cut face: little eyes scattered through ivory to pale straw paste, compact yet elastic beneath a thi