It’s all starting and you’re already in Italy, or you’re still planning I don’t know, but whatever the case is you can’t get your mind off of Italian Cheese. I know it, cause really let’s talk about it it’s one of the main reasons you came here in the first place. I know it. We all know it.
Probably you’re lactose-intolerant, and that just cancels out everything I just said in the first paragraph right? Yes, it does, and I’m sorry that you can’t enjoy the holy trinity of Italian cheeses. But for those of you that aren’t affected by this get ready to embark on a milky journey down cheese lane.
There are three main kinds of cheese that are renown all around the world when we talk about it, they’re no other than Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, and Mozzarella di Bufala.
This doesn’t mean we don’t have any other cheese in Italy, don’t worry we’ll cover move on them later on, and you know what some of them are in this food per region post I wrote a while back, while you check it out you can let us know which ones do you want to know a bit more about in the future, cause hey while you’re here you might want to have some to enjoy, and you might also want to know something about them.
Now let the Cheesestavaganza begin.
Parmigiano Reggiano
So, let’s start with the number one cheese everyone loves it, everyone wants it and everyone tries to copy it. You can’t think about Italy without thinking about Parmigiano, actually, you can’t even think about cheese without it coming to mind. Supposedly even if you can’t have any lactose Parmigiano is alright for you, cause in the process in which they make this cheese the lactose and the galactose ferments away. I mean don’t go mad and try it and then blame us if you’re having a bad reaction.
I started saying that it’s also one of the most imitated cheeses around the world, that’s because the only country that enforces name protection is in Italy, so when you find “Parmigiano” wherever you are it might not be the real deal. Always look for the DOP or the Consorzio symbols to know if it’s the real deal.
Pecorino Romano
Another hard cheese that you can’t grate all over your pasta, the amazing. Pecorino Romano, the cheese for so many classic pasta dishes, like Cacio e Pepe, Bucatini Amatriciana, Rigatoni all Carbonara (or spaghetti if you’re one of those people :P).
Anyway, the main difference between Pecorino Romano and the rest of pecorino around Italy is that the Roman variant is much saltier and harder, plus other pecorino come in such a variety of flavors that it’s gonna take me a year to write them all down. Just remember that all pecorino comes from Sheep milk (Latte di Pecora – Pecorino).
Mozzarella di Bufala
Finally, after two really hard slices of cheese let’s get to the last one on our list, the squishy fluffy Mozzarella di Bufala. Made from the Italian version of the Buffalo, that lives in southern Italy.
Historically Mozzarella di Bufala was made by the monks in the San Lorenzo di Capua monastery to pilgrims for their journeys around the 1300s. Thank god their journeys went well cause we’re still jonesing for Mozzarella di Bufala all these years later.
