Only in moderation

You know dinner is going to be wonderful when your plate looks like this:

This was our first sampling of the cheeses we picked up from Corrieri's: Humboldt Fog, Lamb Chopper, Midnight Moon and Manchego.  We decided not only to taste them alone, but also to sample them with some of their recommended pairings, since we happened to have several of the items on hand.  While perhaps not the most well-balanced meal, since it consisted primarily of dairy and carbs, it was nice for one of the many meals we eat in a week.  It was a plate to be slowly savored.

Humboldt Fog is a beautiful cheese from California.  It's a soft goat's milk cheese that has been surface ripened and has a layer of vegetable ash in the center.  Hands down, it's one of the most interesting cheeses I've ever seen or tasted.  The center has the texture and flavors of what I am used to with a goat's cheese, but the edge, just under the rind, has a texture similar to brie and a stronger flavor.  The wedge is aesthetically pleasing with the gray stripe of ash in the center and the contrast in texture from the center part to the ripened edge.  It's like getting two types of cheese in one!  Delicious alone, we also paired with the recommended mandarin orange, cranberries and walnuts.


Lamb Chopper is a sheep's milk cheese from Holland (which I learned makes up two provinces within the Netherlands, so I should stop using them interchangeably for the country).  Smooth and almost buttery, with a chedder-like firmness, it was very enjoyable alone.  Since it was recommended for kids on a grilled cheese sandwich, we melted some on toasted French bread, which tasted quite good.


Midnight Moon is a goat's milk cheese from Holland.  The nutty flavor reminded me of a Parmesan, although not quite as dry or salty, and the texture occasionally seemed a bit gritty.  We paired it with apple slices and the same fruits and nuts as the Humboldt Fog.


Manchego is a Spanish sheep's milk cheese from the dry plateau south of Madrid.  A hard cheese with DOC status, it is aged anywhere between 6-18 months.  Although most Manchego is now made in factories, much of the milking is still done by hand.  The surface of the wedge was pocked with small irregular holes.  It was dry, nutty and a bit salty, and as it warmed to room temperature, the surface became slightly oily.  Delicious alone, we also grated some over pasta drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, which was equally good.

I enjoyed all four, but if I had to pick a favorite, the Humboldt Fog might have a slight advantage.  It was delicious and incredibly unique.

Corrieri's

I've never really been to the kind of place where you are not only able to but also are encouraged to sample prior to buying, that is, until Saturday. Brett and I ventured to Corrieri's Formaggeria to use one of the Living Social deals I had purchased a while ago.  I was pretty psyched to go to a place solely dedicated to cheese!  We patiently waited while the girl behind the counter assisted another customer and finished the panini for a family with screaming kids in the next room.  To pass the time, we admired the cheeses behind the glass and intently studied the little information cards, and then, the clerk gave us her undivided attention.  She began by asking questions about what we knew that we liked, and more importantly what we disliked, and why.  She used our answers to begin cutting us some samples.  We were not at all rushed while she told us about each cheese, the kind of milk that was used, and some of the factors that contributed to the flavors.  She was extremely patient and well-informed, so it turned into quite the lesson.  With our voucher, we were able to walk out with 4 different cheeses that I can't wait to try!  Going to Corrieri's was a wonderful experience.  We always enjoy supporting local businesses, but we were really impressed with Corrieri's especially after hearing about their commitment to quality.  She told us about a specific cheese they really liked and used to sell, but recently, the maker had changed the ingredients and the quality declined, so they stopped carrying it.  Corrieri's might not have the cheapest prices, but the attention and service means we'll likely return, though perhaps to purchase only one or two cheeses at a time.

the sample area - to the far left are the 4 cheeses we chose

the final 4

new cheese recipes

Since there is an abundance of cheese in our house at present, I decided to use up some cheese in a recipe. The cheese book was absolutely correct about Comté being good for gratins.  I made a spinach and potato gratin for dinner by using a generic au gratin recipe I found online and making my own improvements.  It turned out really well and tasted great!  The cheese melted easily and beautifully, with a seemingly perfect balance of creaminess and stretchiness, and resulted in this:

just out of the oven

served with crumbled bacon on top

 Thankfully, the Abbaye Ste Meré has also been consumed.  Brett used it up last week making grilled cheese sandwiches for his lunch.  He said the organo, butter and black pepper masked some of the smell (not that he had minded it the first time around).

Batting .500

I was recently introduced to the wonderful cheese section at Trader Joe's, so I purchased two new cheeses for February.  I chose two French cheeses - Comté and Abbaye Ste Mere.

Comté is a hard French cheese from the regions of Franche-Comté and Rhone-Alpes in the east of France.  It's a very old cheese, that has been around for over 800 years, and is currently protected by the AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee).  Approximately 120 gallons of cow's milk is required to make each 80 lb wheel, which is aged anywhere between 4 and 18 months.  This was a really nice cheese to enjoy alone, although it supposedly works well in quiches, gratins and other French cuisine.  We could almost taste the sunny, grassy meadows where the cows grazed.  I would classify it as a medium cheese, as it was neither distinctly mild nor sharp.

Abbaye Ste Mere is a semi-soft French cheese made at an abbey in the Normandy region of France. It's made from raw cow's milk.  Upon opening the packaging, I immediately noticed the smell.  It was quite off-putting.  I went ahead and sliced off a bit for myself and Brett, trying to convince myself it was the rind, and it would be fine if I just cut that off.  However, even after trimming off the rind, it still smelled like what we decided was moldy socks.  After much negotiating with myself (we paid good money for this cheese, perhaps it tastes better than it smells, I have to at least try it to have an opinion, etc), I took a bite.  I'm not going to lie - it was pretty unpleasant.  Unfortunately, as with many things, I can't get past the smell, so I won't be eating anymore of this cheese.

A cheese worthy of the Super Bowl

Brie with apples and cranberries

It tasted like an apple pie, only better!  The apples and cranberries were coated in butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, and then everything was wrapped in dough and baked to perfection.  Unfortunately, I don't have an "after" picture since we were at someone's house with several other people, and I wasn't about to subject them that, but it turned out really well!

Mafiaoza's Part 4: the finale

The next cheese was Taleggio, which is classified as a hard Italian cheese.  It is protected by the PDO, which designates that the surface must be imprinted with the four-leafed brand of the Corsorzio Tutela Taleggio, and that, when sold, it must be wrapped in a certain type of paper carrying the brand name.  Both are proofs of the quality and origin.  Taleggio is made from both pasteurized and raw cow's milk in the Italian regions of Lombardia, Piedmont and Veneto.  It is aged 25-40 days in caves (or rooms in which factors such as temperature and humidity are controlled to mimic those in a natural cave) and comes in large squares.  This was one of my favorites from Mafiaoza's platter.  It was soft, almost like a firm Brie, and was better the more it warmed to room temperature.  It tasted very rich and creamy and was incredibly smooth.

We also sampled Gouda, a Dutch cheese which is made all over the Netherlands and accounts for 60% of the country's total cheese production.  It's a hard cow's milk cheese that is aged anywhere between 4 weeks and 3 years, but to qualify as "aged Gouda" must be aged at least 18 months.  Young Gouda has a yellow rind, while aged has a black waxed rind, and the cheese itself becomes more yellow with age.  What separates Gouda from other cheeses is that once the curd is cut, a process of washing the curd is used to dilute the whey and remove lactose from the curds.  The Gouda we had was really good with a firm texture and sharp taste.

The last cheese was Gorgonzola, an Italian blue cheese from cow's milk, highly regulated and protected by the PDO and produced in the regions of Lombardia and Piedmont.  It may have been the first blue cheese, the result of a happy accident.  The legend is that a young boy, distracted by love, accidentally left a bundle of curds hanging overnight in the cellar.  The next morning, he attempted to hide his mistake by adding those curds to the morning's fresh batch.  However, several weeks later, the cheese had a mold though the center.  Today is it made at around 40 dairies and factories in either the traditional "two day curd" method, or the "one day curd" method in which the blue mold is added to the milk.  The single day method creates more blue coloring but less flavor.  Four weeks into the aging process, which totals 3-6 months, the cheese is pierced to encourage the mold to spread throughout the drum.  Prior to Mafiaoza's, I only recall having Gorgonzola in other things, such as salads.  Sampling it by itself revealed a very strong, pungent, salty and spicy cheese.  I decided that I definitely prefer blue cheeses in dishes and not alone.

Mafiaoza's was quite dark, but since it quickly became evident that there was no way we could finish everything that night, I decided to take a picture the next day at home.  These were the "leftovers."

clockwise from 9:00-Stilton with Blueberries, Taleggio, Parmesan, Gouda, Drunken Goat, Asiago, (center) Gorgonzola

Mafiaoza's Part 3: the feast continues

Initially, I was a bit disappointed that one of the cheeses at Mafiaoza's was a Stilton with blueberries, but I decided to give it a fair chance. I liked this one much better than the one we had at New Year's. It was softer, more crumbly and not as sweet, which helped balance out the sweetness of the berries.

We also tried Asiago. There are two types - Asiago Pressato and Asiago d'Allevo.  I think we had the latter although the menu did not specify.  Asiago d'Allevo is a hard cheese made from the milk of cows grazing on mountain pastures while Asiago Pressato is semi-soft, contains irregular holes and is made from the milk of cows grazing in low pastures. Both types can only be made in specific production areas within the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige and are aged 20-40 days in wheels ranging from 24-33 lbs.  It was dry and crumbly, but less so than Parmesan, and I thought it had a slightly sweet and very smooth flavor.

One of the highlights for me was the Drunken Goat cheese, or Murcia al Vino. I wasn't sure what to expect after the waiter described it as goat cheese soaked in wine, but I was intrigued at once.  It's a Spanish cheese from the Murcia region in the Southeast.  It is made from the milk of the native Murciano-Granadina goats.  A semi-soft washed-curd cheese, it is aged at least 3 weeks and washed with local Jumilla and Yecla red wines.  The wine gives the rind a beautiful dark purple stain.  It tasted mild to me in comparison to tangy, soft goat cheese I was familiar with, and though it seemed a bit rubbery in texture, I really enjoyed it.  Although I usually find myself cutting the rind off cheese, I did eat this one as it was quite thin and contained the subtle flavors of the wine.

Mafiaoza's Part 2

The cheese plate was served with a small cup of honey.  We were so overwhelmed by the cheese cornucopia spread before us that we forgot which cheese the waiter recommended actually pairing with the honey, so we ended up trying it with several, and I don't think any were disappointing.  Our favorite, however, was dipping the Parmigiano Reggiano in the honey.  It was a perfect contrast of smooth, sweet honey with the salty, dry, crumbly Parmesan.

Parmigiano Reggiano is a hard cheese made with skim cow's milk. The production is highly regulated.  The cows must be fed only fresh grass, hay or alfalfa, depending on the season, which creates variability in the flavor of the cheese throughout the year.  It can only be made in four provinces in the region of Emilia-Romagna (Modena, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Mantova) and one province in the region of Lombardy (Mantova).  The recipe has remained largely unchanged since the 12th century.  It takes 160 gallons of milk to make each 85 lb drum and each is aged between 18 and 36 months.

La Reggia

After just one bite of this crumbly cheese at Mafiaoza's, my husband paused and said, "This reminds me of the Pecorino with honey we had at that place in Fiesole. Do you remember it?"  I looked at him silently for a moment before responding, "Do I remember it? Really?  I remember everything about that meal.  It was amazing!  We had the asparagus tart appetizer, I had the tagliatelle with guinea-hen sauce, you had the ravioli with tomato-orange sauce, and we had the Pecorino with honey for dessert.  It's one of my most memorable meals!"  It was the first time I had really considered cheese as a dessert, other than cream cheese.  We savored each bite of the firm, slightly grainy, cheese drizzled with sweet honey.  The pecorino was "di Grotta."  It was a sheep's milk cheese aged around four months in caves and washed with oil.  The restaurant was La Reggia, and we stumbled on it quite by accident.  We had taken the bus to Fiesole, and then climbed a steep incline to the overlook.  We ended up staying quite a while, so transfixed by the view of Florence during daylight, that I decided I wanted to stay long enough to see how the city lights and mountains looked in a night sky.  Therefore, we needed to kill some time, and there's no better way to do that in Italy than with food!  We walked a short ways back down the path and discovered La Reggia.  It was the only restaurant that we saw up where we were, and from inside, we could still look out over Florence to enjoy the changing light.  We both want to return to Fiesole and stay there for a couple days.

climbing to the overlook

Florence from Fiesole

Firenze da Fiesole alla notte