Our best sweet cheeses for your delicious dessert.

Playing with flavors and having fun at the table is possible. Indeed, it is possible. For example, making a cheese turn into a dessert directly. You might think we are hinting at using cheese as an ingredient to create a cake, a cheesecake, or to savor it with some sweet fruit. In reality, no: we are really thinking about particular cheeses that are excellent desserts on their own.

A cheese can work well as a dessert when it is aged with ingredients that give it additional sweet notes, romantic emotions that make one close their eyes and return to beautiful moments of the past. And it is from here that we want to start, from the king of romantic cheeses: the Blu 61 de La Casearia Carpenedo.

BLU 61: THE SWEET CHEESE FOR A ROMANTIC DESSERT

Sweet inside. To celebrate his fiftieth wedding anniversary (1961-2011) with his wife Giuseppina, Antonio Carpenedo pulled a true cheesemaking magic out of his hat. The Blu 61 is his gem that seals their union after so many years: a blue cheese drunken with passito Raboso wine and later aged under a cloak of red berries. A unique and unrepeatable creation that embodies love, technique, and pure pleasure.

FOUR DESSERT CHEESES SIGNED SAPORI DEL PORTICO

With these aged cheeses from Giuseppe Bernardinelli, the master affineur of I Sapori del Portico, we can always stay in the romantic theme because it is easy, with such cheesy gems, to court or be courted. Let’s start with three cheeses: they are called Zenzerito, Pistakkito, and Manghito. The names also help to understand which ingredients these cheeses have been aged with.

The Zenzerito is a small round triple-milk cheese, with a light texture reminiscent of goat cheeses, even though it also contains cow's and sheep’s milk. Spiced with ginger, red pepper, and lime: this exotic flavor is felt right in the creamy paste. The aroma is thrilling too!

The Pistakkito is also a triple-milk tomino that has been aged under a cloak of delicious and crunchy Bronte DOP pistachios. The aging takes place inside a small hermetically sealed jar and lasts just one week. Very rich in flavor and creaminess: an experience to try.

The Manghito is made from the same base as the previous two, namely a tomino made with goat, cow, and sheep milk. The ingredients with which this cheese is aged are mango and licorice, and it is also hermetically sealed in the jar for a week. The combination of the two flavors creates a pleasant balance that pervades the palate!

And now we move on to the fourth cheese, probably the masterpiece of indulgence. Chocolate could not go unnoticed among the aging ingredients, and here it is: we present to you the Blu Dominik Rum and Cocoa. A dessert cheese made especially to give strong emotions. We are talking about a blue cheese made with cow's milk and enriched with cream, making it even creamier. This cheese is then allowed to rest for a week, hermetically sealed in a glass jar with Ecuador cacao beans and agricultural rum. After these 7 days, the cheese is covered with a layer of cocoa powder. A combination of wonderful flavors that will pamper every sense! A thrilling pairing? Try savoring it with a visciola in syrup from Corte Luceoli. A heavenly pairing!

SWEET CHEESES THAT BRING FRUIT TO THE TABLE

In the world of aged cheeses, the most beautiful thing is the variety of ingredients used for aging. Those aged with fruit can be enjoyed at the end of the meal precisely for the sweetness and the pleasantness of the fruit that enhances their flavor. Try the Blu aged with Fior d'Arancio Passito Colli Euganei DOCG from Moro Formaggi: another example of drunken blue cow's cheese, this time in the sweet passito wine Fior d'Arancio from the Colli Euganei DOCG, after a slow aging process of one month. It is then placed in aging in contact with peel of Venetian oranges. Intense, exciting, citrusy. Try it with a little acacia honey, perhaps in the colder months.

Another masterpiece from I Sapori del Portico is the Langhino aged with Annurca apple and Rum. Made with cow’s and sheep’s milk coming from the high Langa, sealed in a jar in contact with a nice slice of dried Campanian Annurca apple from Avellinese and Beneventano and soaked in agricultural rum. A truly intense flavor worthy of a fruit dessert!

Francesco Iannò