Tomorrow will be exciting

Quick teaser while I ride the bus: I heard back from Steven Jenkins, James Beard Foundation award-winning author and Fairway Market superstar, who has agreed to offer guest cheese commentary. He is the author of the "Cheese Primer," which taught me most of what I know, and he is likely the foremost cheese expert in America. Anyone who complained about my lack of expertise, complain no longer. Steven has given me his recommendations; I will go shopping, video camera in hand, tomorrow, and then we'll take it from there. He writes:

The thing about Piemonte (and Lombardy, and the Alto Adige, and the Veneto) is that there are scads of cheeses that are extremely highly regarded in their particular regions, but that rarely travel outside them. It is remarkable that us hipsters in NYC manage to get our hands on them, only because we are idiots savant. I mean, forget about finding any of a number of venerable Piemontese cheeses in Bologna, Firenze, Roma, etc. Of course you'll find the toweringly important Fontina d'Aosta and the odd robiola, but that's about it. I'm surprised you found Pecorino Toscano in Torino. [Note: The Pecorino Toscano is an as-yet uneaten C!O!F!D!]

I'm sure you enjoyed the Raschera. An important cheese. And there are innumerable robiola cheeses all over Piemonte, as different from each other as can be. Robiola is a word that refers to the cheese's propensity to "redden" as it ages, which isn't always the case. Nonetheless, they are referred to as such much the way cheeses of Central Italy are referred to as "caciotta", which refers to the fact that they are a mix of milks, rather than 100 percent sheep's milk. And I am pleased to see that the Piemontese have chosen to honor our president's mother by naming a cheese after her.

I want you to look for the following -- these are, in my not-so-humble opinion, a few of the most drop-dead, knock-out cheeses in my 31 years of being a cheesemonger. All are Piemontese. After all, it is Torino's time in the spotlight.

TUMA D'LA PAJA: by the Ocelli brothers; these are "paglierina" cheeses -- so-named for once being thrust into bales of hay (straw="paglia") so that the heat would ripen them; pudding-soft, mixed milk, to die for.
MURAZZANNO: the great DOP (name-controlled) sheep's cheese; disks.
CASTELMAGNO: the great DOP cow's milk blue (barely); very expensive and rare.
BETTELMATT: extraordinary Gruyere-type from the Val d'Ossola; imbued with a haunting flavor delivered by a wild herb grazed upon by the cattle, that finds its way through the mammolactation into the milk and into the cheese.
BRA: perhaps Piemonte's best-known cheese (Fontina is from Aosta, not Piemonte); I love it that a cheese that comes from bosoms is named Bra (I know Bra is an important town).
SEIRASS DEL FENN: [Expletive deleted] cheese you'll ever see; sort of a dried ricotta festooned with hay; primitive, dee-lish.

We could do this another half a dozen times, easy.

Regards,

Steven

Admit it, this is exciting. I can hardly wait for tomorrow. I know you feel the same way.

Oh, and did you see this comment below, from another local expert:

I recommend another cheese shop, Borgiattino, in Via Accademia Albertina 38. It only carries small producers' stuff, of the highest quality, whereas the [Alpine Hut of Cheese] relies mostly on good semi-industrial suppliers. I recommend the 'Blu del Moncenisio' (aka Morianengo) which comes from very near the Valsusa Olympic sites, or any of the slightly seasoned goat tome.

Will have to check it out, I suppose, but loyalty counts for something too.

By Dan Steinberg |  February 13, 2006; 5:14 PM ET
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