Most people who adore cheese can recount a moment from their past when everything became just a bit clearer. It's what we call The Cheese Epiphany, and it's when you have your first deeply emotional response to cheese.
Our resident cheesemonger recently found a superlative version of the cheese responsible for hers, which we're documenting here.
We've talked a lot about ricotta here: how to make it, with what to serve it, and recipes that highlight it.
But when you find an example that blows all others away, it's only appropriate to re-open the conversation.
Since 1892, Alleva Dairy, the oldest cheese market in Little Italy, has been making some of the most outstanding fresh ricotta around, made at their dairy in Schenectady, New York. Alleva's is light, smooth, and creamy as can be. But there's a complexity that isn't normally present in other ricottas. It's complex and nuanced, with a longer, lingering finish you don't normally see in fresh cheeses.
Robert Alleva, the latticcini’s current owner, still continues to use a century-old recipe borrowed from the original owner, his great grandmother Pina, who immigrated from Italy.
Italian for “re-cooked,” the name refers to its make process, whereby leftover whey from the making of another cheese is reheated to curdle out the whey's remaining proteins and fats into soft curd. The result is fluffy, uber-fresh cheese, which at its best is a thumbprint of the clean, sweet milk from which it came. Unfortunately, the quality spectrum of ricotta is vast, and supermarket versions will leave you reaching for anything to rid your mouth of the granular texture and plastic-y taste.
While ricotta is more often used for cooking, when it's as good as Alleva's, it's best honored plain. A sprinkle of coarse salt (maybe) and a great baguette is truly the only accompaniments necessary.
If prodded to go further, a good option is a large, wide bowl of ricotta surrounded with chopped and chilled roasted beets, toasted almonds, a hefty drizzle of honey, and a few grinds of fresh pepper.
Alleva Dairy’s Ricotta can be found at Alleva Dairy (on the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets in Manhattan) for $3.79/lb and at Saxelby Cheesemongers for $3.99/lb.
Related: Recipe: D.I.Y. Ricotta
Recipe: Easy Ricotta Gnocchi
(Image: Flickr user Moritz licensed under Creative Commons)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Gorgonzola Cremificato. The textures bleu my mind. Ha.
http://www.artisanalcheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10245
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5-year aged gouda.
Rich, buttery caramel with crunchy salty crystals.
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Hook 12 year Cheddar. My boyfriend calls it super cheese-flavored cheese.
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Cave aged gruyere. It was the first time I realized that there was a wonderful world of cheeses out there that did not come from mega food corporations and were much much tastier & more interesting.
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the first time? goat cheese my aunt made from the milk from her "yard goats." the second? royal blue stilton. yum!
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Just two weeks ago we bought some two year old cheddar from a guy at the public market who grumbled that he "only made 60 cents on that sale." His loss, our gain. We'd had old cheddar before, but not anything like this. It had an amazing crumble, came in plastic wrap with two x's marked on it in sharpie (to denote "extra extra sharp") and was effing amazing on everything it touched. I knew I liked old cheese, but the difference between buying cheese from the maker and buying cheese at the grocery hadn't been thrown into that sharp a contrast before.
view cakekick's profile
And only 6.95 a pound!
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Delice de Bourgogne triple cream. Brie on Steroids. And 'Flaxseed oil'.
Best cheese ever!
view fib's profile
Cowgirl Creamery's Signature Mt Tam-absolute heaven.
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A platter of five different types of Pecorino cheese, served with bread and honey, at a bodega in a tiny (like two street tiny) town in Tuscany.
view J's profile
Guffanti's Gorgonzola Dolce brings tears to my eyes each and every time.
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I went into a spiritual reverie after I tasted Roaring 40's blue for the first time. I was in a haze for a few days, wondering about the meaning of existence and how it related to Tasmanian cheese.
I actually teared up at how frigging amazing LA TUR is. I casually accepted a schmear of it on a piece of bread and was stopped dead in my tracks. I wanted to drop to my knees.
view Bx's profile
Seconding the cave-aged gruyere and also: triple cream brie.
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The Drunken Goat!
~justifies me having wine with it in the afternoon.
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St. Agur and Explorateur, heaven!!!!
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