Italian cheese is where the same word most often covers two different products. Asiago, gorgonzola and provolone each name more than one cheese, and fontina on an American shelf is usually not the Fontina Val d’Aosta the name comes from. Names such as caciotta, robiola and provola describe a shape or a family rather than a recipe.
How to judge a cheese
Read the rind and the name together. A DOP guarantees origin, method and a published discipline, not the grade of the wheel in front of you, and where that guarantee stops matters more here than anywhere on the site. For a hard cheese, age is the next thing to read: Parmigiano Reggiano tastes different at 12, 24 and 36 months, and Grana Padano differs from it in four specific ways. For a fresh cheese the date matters more than the mark, and burrata runs on the shortest clock of all.
American cheeses borrow Italian names freely, which is why the difference between Made in Italy, Product of Italy and Italian Style is worth knowing before a wedge reaches the basket.
What does not reach the United States
Raw milk cheese is governed by a sixty-day rule, which decides which young raw milk cheeses can be imported at all, and the import rules set out what that leaves on the shelf.
Price, and where to buy
What Italian ingredients cost in the United States explains what drives a price and how to judge one that looks too good, and the routes that actually carry good cheese say where to source a good wedge. Every cheese here answers to the Italian ingredient and the gap worth paying for.
