the cheese blog

Cheeses from my Italy holiday

Ok, we’re back in business now. I had some other commitments and had to put blogging aside for a couple of months. This is a rather large post as it covers me trying to remember the cheeses I sampled while touring through Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome, and Milan) at the end of December. I didn’t take very good notes since I was on holiday and just too relaxed. However, I had some really nice cheeses and was very impressed by the different varieties of Italian cheeses that never make it to the States.

I took the opportunity to sample some cheeses from various grocery stores we stopped in to pick up essentials. It was my opportunity to see what kind of cheeses you could get, e.g., what do the masses eat. That’s not to say I didn’t try to visit some cheese shops, but the lines were crazy! Check out Casa del Parmigiano in Venice! I wasn’t in the mood to wait after having stood there for 10 minutes already and no one in front of me was finished ordering. Oh well ..

Here are the cheeses I managed to remember. Following those are some pictures of the various cheese plates I had at dinner (one cannot live on pasta and pizza alone!)

These are the cheeses I managed to remember, in order to the pictures below.

• Campscio d’Oro (supposed to be like an Italian Camembert – this one was bitter and I didn’t like it. Maybe I got a bad cheese.)
• Ricotta al Forno Dura Siciliana (Hard baked ricotta – this was really nice, salty, firm texture, quite good)
• Pecorino de Pepe (this was really good – pepper crusted Pecorino)
• Bel Paese (I had this with bread for breakfast in Venice. I didn’t think I’d like it, but it was strangely addictive. Kind of like butterkase, but with a good flavor. Maybe I was just hungry.)

I don’t seem to have pictures for these cheeses, but I had them in my notes.

• Caciotta sienette stagionata
• Prataiola Mignon
• Formaggio Capta Stag. Il Saggio Amalattea

And here are some pictures of the various cheese plates I tried. Most of them had some type of Pecorino or Parmigiano-Reggiano.