{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }
(l to r) Withersbrook Blue; Jake and Sylvia Stoltzfus of Jake’s Gouda; Shabby Shoe
American Cheese Month is a time for celebration and optimism. So here’s my toast to several new (or newish) domestic cheeses that make me especially proud of our artisan producers and hopeful for their future. In alpha order:
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Bread and cheese are my love languages. Hot, crisp focaccia stuffed with oozy Crescenza? I would travel for that. Alas, I still haven’t made it to the birthplace of the fabled focaccia di Recco, but the dish was born again in my kitchen last week thanks to recipe assistance from Lidia Bastianich. After watching a couple of YouTube videos of bakers making this Ligurian specialty on its home turf, I wasn’t convinced I could even get close. But take a look. I’m pretty proud of what came out of my oven, and you won’t be surprised that it vanished immediatemente. If you can track down some Crescenza or Stracchino, you’ve got this.
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My fava beans are happening and a friend just brought me a fabulous Tuscan pecorino. Is that an opportunity or what? Young favas straight from the pod. Nuggets of buttery sheep cheese. Crisp white wine. It’s the antipasto I fantasize about when I plant the beans in the fall, and now’s the moment. Every good cheese counter will have an aged pecorino suitable for pairing with fresh favas—an Italian spring custom—but I am smitten with this new-to-me cheese.
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Still finalizing your Easter menu? Or maybe, like me, you’re a guest and need to bring something. To that end, I’ve gathered some of my favorite ricotta recipes for right now.
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Maybe, by the time you read this, the tariff wars will be over. Or maybe not. In that case, we’ll be pining for the good old days of $40 a pound French cheese. The on-again off-again import duties have cheesemakers, importers, distributors and retailers unable to make key business decisions. But as it stands now, we’re looking at a 20% tariff on cheeses from EU countries. Switzerland, inexplicably, got slapped with a 31% duty. Go figure. I checked in with importers, distributors and retailers about what this means, potentially, for consumers—and for their own businesses. It’s not pretty.
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At my house, we enjoy the year’s first asparagus with nothing but olive oil and salt. I like the Goldilocks spears—not too thick, not too thin—and I eat them with my fingers. But after a couple of these keep-it-simple encounters, I’m ready to change it up and, naturally, cheese is my go-to.
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I was shopping for cheeses recently for a sparkling wine tasting and hoping to find a few selections my guests wouldn’t know. This bloomy-rind beauty caught my eye because even I didn’t know it. A gentle probe of the exterior told me it was ripe. But was it tasty?
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If you want to show Canada some love right now, seek out this award-winning Canadian Cheddar. I was surprised to find it at a local shop recently; we get so few cheeses of any type from our northern neighbor.
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Anniversary? Birthday? I wasn’t sure what to call it, but Roquefort is celebrating a milestone this year. That most iconic of French blue cheeses received the first AOC—appellation d’origine controlee—100 years ago this summer.
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I was hoping to order a favorite French cheese for an upcoming class, but the distributor had unwelcome news for me. “We haven’t had it for months,” she said. “The producer stopped making it.” Her reporting turned out to be largely, but not entirely, accurate. There was more to the story.
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