Favorite Cheeses?

[Alfredo]

Ricotta is a staple in my kitchen. I stir it into pasta with pesto or tomato sauce, spread it on toast (crostini) with a little salt & pepper, or what ever is at hand. Got some pizza dough left over? Stuff it with ricotta and chunks of mozzarella or asiago for a nice cheese calzone.

Ricotta is featured in today's New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/di...tml?ref=dining

[BrianShaw]

Did someone say "Gorgonzola"?

I occasionally make a pizza with pesto sauce, Gorgonzola cheese, roasted garlic, and apple (Granny Smith - tart, green)... after the bake add toasted pignoli. Yum!

[biondoli]

2 classical Italian pizza are Gorgonzola and 4 formaggi (4 cheese).
generally we don't add anything else.
If don't find gorgonzola, you can use blue cheese...watch the quantity as it would easily overwhelm the taste, add also few leaves of sage.
For the 4 formaggi just pick the 4 you like and again watch the quantity and do not mix them them, divide the condiments in 4 different quarter of the pizza.
Just made gorgozola pizza Sunday for some friends and they liked it.

[gjbingham]

I was making only two pizzas a couple of weeks ago and didn't want to open a new pack of mozzarella. I switched in a Montery Jack in its place. I found that I liked it better. Perhaps a bit more salt made the difference. The pizzas dissappeared.

My favorite cheese - Jarlsberg! Creamy heaven in every bite!

[SpringJim]

A nice sharp fontina too!

[Ageo308]

In Italy, Naples "fresh" Buffalo Mozzarella is available everywhere as they consume it everyday for all types of cooking. Its so cheap and you cant beat the taste of it. Unfortunately here its so expensive and the quality is no where near it is over there, so i try and stick to a mozzarella and fresh ricotta made from the local cheese farms.

[gjbingham]

I also like the pressurized cheese in a can that you squirt onto your favorite junk food. I think that's my fav!

[Pannabecker]

I'm going to try my hand at making my own mozzarella this weekend. Just returned from Italy and LOVED the cheese we got there. It's so hard going back to the plastic stuff I buy here at the store. I've read so many different ways to do it and I'm going to try a few till I get what I want. It's really hard to find raw milk around here even though I live around many farms. No one milks cows anymore. I guess I'll have to use store bought pasturized milk. Anyone have a success story making really good cheese?

Karen

[egalecki]

I've made the mozzarella with the kit from New England Cheesemaking. We've had varying success- sometimes it's soft and good, sometimes it's more rubbery. It has to do with how much microwaving my husband does. (he likes to do the pulling) I think I'm going to try one of the added cultures they sell to enhance the flavor, though, as soon as I get around to ordering it.

Most of the time, though, I just buy the soft stuff in the Kroger deli section. It'll never be as good as Italy, but hey, I don't have a water buffalo, either....

How was your trip?????

[Pannabecker]

The trip was great. Maybe I'll comment on it in the travel thread.

I have 2 recipes for mozzarella I want to try. One you use the microwave for and the other you don't. One is Barbara Kingsolver's recipe that was printed in Mother Earth News. The other I got off the internet.

Have you ever been to The Cheese Shop in Stuarts Draft, VA? About 1/2 hour north of Lexington. They have good mozzarella but still not like what I had in Italy.

Karen