If you were limited to eating cheese from only one region (perish the thought), where would you choose? I’m going with the Pyrenees, preferably the French side. The cheeses we get from the Basque Country and neighboring Béarn are so consistently appealing that I don’t even think I would feel that deprived. Two new imports from the region make the choice even easier.
Read moreWhat Tradition Tastes Like
It’s possible today to make commercial cheese that hands never touch. Milk is trucked to the plant and goes in one end of the production line and packaged cheese comes out the other. How dreary is that?
The cheeses I write about aren’t made like that, but they aren’t often made by old-time methods either—on a farm, from the raw milk of the family’s flock, with hands cutting the curd and flipping the wheels and humans making decisions at every step. The exceptional new Spanish cheese pictured above is an example of the distinction a cheese can achieve when made the hands-on, purist way.
Read moreRemembering Cindy Callahan, Sheep Cheese Pioneer
A registered nurse who became a tax lawyer and, in her fifties, a California cheesemaker and shepherd, Cindy Callahan died in early June after a brief illness. She was 88. Callahan was an American sheep cheese pioneer who, with her son, Liam, and his wife, Diana, built one of the most successful U.S. creameries devoted largely to sheep’s milk products. Bellwether Farms, in Sonoma County, is now the nation’s leading producer of sheep’s milk yogurt and an acclaimed producer of sheep cheese. In her multi-faceted career, “shepherd” was the job Callahan loved most. She didn’t exactly choose the role but life happens.
Read moreDutch Sheep Cheese for Gouda Fans
You don’t see sheep cheese from the Netherlands every day, so I leaped on this one as soon I learned of it. The Dutch make mountains of cow’s milk cheese—about 2 billion pounds a year—but not much else. Goat cheese amounts to less than three percent of the country’s production and sheep cheese is barely a blip. But maybe that’s changing. Ewephoria, a sheep Gouda crafted for the American market about 20 years ago, found an instant fan club (not surprising—it’s like cheese candy), and this newcomer deserves a warm welcome, too. Made with organic milk and matured for six to eight months in the Treur Kaas cellar, this Gouda-like beauty—christened Beppie—is as creamy as a caramel.
Read moreCorsican Treasure
My husband and I spent three weeks in Corsica a few years ago (do it!), and our visit happened to coincide with a two-day cheese fair celebating the island’s shepherds. We ate a lot of rustic and wonderful sheep cheese and I met at length with Catherine Le Beschu, then the director of an organization that was trying to protect these vanishing cheeses. She told me, to my surprise, that Corsicans don’t eat the herb-coated sheep cheese that is the island’s most famous export. Fleur du Maquis (pictured above) and Brin d’Amour—so similar they’re often mistaken for each other—are insanely delicious so I don’t get why Corsicans disdain them.
Read moreBoard Game
Butter boards had their 15 minutes. Now, meet the ricotta board—which, naturally, I vastly prefer. Channel your inner artist and make a masterpiece with whipped ricotta and the toppings you like. (I have some suggestions.) I love how creamy ricotta becomes in a food processor, making a luscious canvas for toasted pistachios, briny olives, tapenade, pesto, prosciutto or whatever strikes your fancy. Add little knives for spreading and bread or crackers to spread it on.
Read moreNew Year, New Ewe Cheese
Fresh sheep cheese wasn’t even a thing a decade ago. Now we have options, including this newcomer from Spain. Like a buttery cream cheese, it’s all ready to schmear on your morning bagel. Or marinate with extra virgin olive oil and garlic confit for wine o’clock. To savor this cheese at its most seductive, warm it until it quivers.
Read moreFeta to the Rescue
After months of tomatoes and zucchini, I’m ready for winter squash. Kabocha is my favorite, but butternut squash is much easier to hack into and to peel. I like to roast thick slices until they’re caramelized and then balance the sweetness with something tart and tangy. Feta to the rescue, along with pomegranate seeds, pepitas, Aleppo pepper and yogurt. Creamy and crunchy, warm and cool, sweet and tart. It’s all there in this autumn side dish. Add a roast chicken or a bulgur pilaf and dinner’s ready.
Read moreBig Win for a Glorious Goat Cheese
I am overjoyed to see aged goat cheese getting more attention from America’s cheesemakers. Personally, I can’t work up much enthusiasm for another fresh, rindless chèvre—we have plenty of those—but a new firm, nutty goat cheese with a natural rind, made in the U.S.A., gives us more choice in a slender category. The blue ribbon-winning beauty pictured above isn’t new—it debuted maybe 10 years ago—but it’s tasting better than ever. And I am noticing a few more entries in this slim niche. Many people tell me they don’t like goat cheese, but in my experience, everybody likes this type.
Read moreBaked Lemon Ricotta is a Slice of Puglia
Is it cheese…or is it cake? Or is it cheesecake? Baked lemon ricotta is a modern creation produced by a small family enterprise in Puglia, but there’s plenty of tradition behind it. In Sicily and Puglia, shepherds long ago figured out that they could bake their ricotta in their wood-burning oven and extend its lifespan. Thirty-five years ago, the Donvito family took the practice in a new direction, creating a line of sweet, sliceable baked ricottas flavored with lemon, coffee, cocoa and pistachio. The lemon version—the bestseller by far—turns up at American cheese counters occasionally and I’ve been eyeing it, but not trying it, for years.
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