{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }
Meg Smith Photography
Get a hand lens ready. You’re going to want to take a closer look at this astonishing cheese rind. It is quite the wild kingdom, a thick crust of colorful, coexisting microbes. I’m not sure I have ever seen a more riveting surface on a cheese: suede gray, dusty brown, ivory, powdery yellow and rust.
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My fava bean crop was a disaster this year—diseased leaves, low yield. I have no clue why, but the best gardener I know had the same issues so I’m not taking it personally. The upshot is that I have had to be miserly with the favas and the harvest is ending way too soon. In my garden, it’s now or never.
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(left to right) Oveja Negra Manchego ($30/lb); Pecorino di Filiano ($20/lb); Bellwether Farms Pepato ($40/lb)
“For years, we’ve held our price down,” the cheesemaker told me. But he couldn’t hold the line any longer. The economics of aged sheep’s milk cheese was forcing him to bump up prices, and not by a little. What I didn’t understand, and what the cheesemaker convincingly explained, was why comparable wheels from Europe often cost much less.
Read moreI know I’m late to this party, but I’m just learning how appealing a fine brandy can be with cheese. Not every cheese, of course, but many firm aged cheeses have roasted nut, caramel and brown-butter notes that complement the heady aromas in a brandy glass.
Read moreI can’t explain why I’m so smitten with this little goat cheese from northern Italy, but I am. I couldn’t leave it alone. Nocetto di Capra, a bloomy-rind cheese from the Lombardia region, doesn’t have the mouth-filling flavor that usually flips my switch. It’s a subtle little guy, but so unlike any goat cheese we make in this country or any other goat cheese I know for that matter.
Read moreI’m vaguely aware that my husband, Doug, maintains a list of cheeses that go well with Cabernet Sauvignon. You might imagine that I would be the one with that list, but no, he’s the go-to source. He’s the winemaker, after all.
Read moreYears ago, the best cheese shops used to sell a baked ricotta imported from Italy. It had a pale, firm, sliceable interior and a dark, crusty skin. I haven’t seen baked ricotta in years, and even back then, it appeared so sporadically and unpredictably that I eventually decided to recreate it myself. Apart from draining the ricotta, which takes a few hours, it’s a five-minute recipe.
Read moreFor years, the only buffalo-milk cheese available in the U.S. was Italian mozzarella di bufala. It came from the Campania region around Naples, where the water buffalo were. But that’s rapidly changing.
Read moreAmid the endless jams, honeys, pickled fruits, syrups, crackers and other accompaniments for cheese at last week’s Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, these glamorous Italian mustard fruits (mostarda) stood out. Aren’t they lovely? If you are assembling a cheese board for a special occasion, consider investing in a jar. (They’re not cheap.) Or take a jar to a cheese enthusiast when you’re invited to dinner.
Read moreLast week at the grocery store, I watched a woman casually drop $200 on white truffles. When the clerk weighed them and announced the price, the customer didn’t flinch but I did. I got to enjoy the aroma briefly while the precious nuggets were on the scale, and that’s probably as close as I’ll get to white truffles this year.
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