/ Our magazine / Blue inside, rich outside. What is it about?
/ Our magazine / Blue inside, rich outside. What is it about?
Why is it called blue cheese? It's called that, of course, because it is blue! Or rather, it has blue-green veins that run through it, as if it were drawn by an eccentric artist with mold as a brush. But don't worry: that mold is Penicillium Roqueforti or Glaucum, and it is one of the most beloved molds in the world!
Before telling the story, we must remember that it was once also called "green cheese".
It all begins, according to legend, in a cave in France. A shepherd forgot his lunch in a damp cavity. He returned a few weeks later and his cheese was covered in mold, but the smell was good. He tasted it, and from there, Roquefort was born, the noble father of blue cheeses.
Other countries later realized that mold wasn't so bad after all; in fact, mold gave cheese more personality! Thus began many herb-flavored delights, now loved all over the world.
For years, blue cheeses were considered a curiosity for a few connoisseurs. Those intense colors, those green-blue veins, and that strong aroma often scared off less adventurous palates. But today, the world of herb-flavored cheeses has transformed. And as often happens in cooking, what was once “strange” today is synonymous with refinement, peculiarity, and a search for authentic taste.
Blue cheeses have become numerous and varied, each with a story, a milk origin, and a unique distinctive trait. We are no longer just talking about the famous Gorgonzola, the pride of Italy, but of a real constellation of flavors. Blue cheese has begun to transform: no longer just from cow, but also from goat, sheep, buffalo, and sometimes a clever mix of all these milks. This has given birth to a new world of herb-flavored cheeses, each with a different soul.
Goat's milk brought with it a pungent and fresh character, an acidic note that ignites the mouth and challenges the palate. Sheep's milk, richer and fattier, has given roundness, power, and that deep flavor that tastes of pasture and wind. And then came the buffalo, sweet, buttery, with an enveloping creaminess that amazed everyone: who would have ever imagined buffalo blue cheese?
Italian producers, with their mastery, have been able to seize this challenge. They have aged their blues in passito wine, wrapped them in mountain hay, and paired them with raisins. New and bold names have emerged. In an increasingly standardized dairy panorama, blue cheeses represent a conscious choice for those seeking quality, creativity, and a strong connection to the territory.
For example, the Blu ’61 is a cow's milk blue cheese aged in Raboso Passito wine and enriched with red blueberries. A daring idea that creates an extraordinary balance between sweetness, acidity, and aromatic complexity. It is a cheese for meditation, to be presented as the absolute protagonist at the table, perhaps alongside a glass of the same Raboso.
The Basajo, on the other hand, is a tribute to the intensity of sheep's milk. Aged in passito wine and covered with raisins, it surprisingly blends aromatic potency and sweet notes. In simple terms, it is Roquefort meeting the Mediterranean.
The Toma blu with herbs, aged with hay and mountain aromatic plants, tells a story of alpine pastures, woods, and slow aging. It is a cheese that smells of nature, of huts, and of green silences.
The variety today is such that you can choose a blue cheese for every occasion: spreadable for crostini and appetizers, structured for sauces and first courses, aged to accompany passito wines, honey or dried fruit.
A temptation for greedy and tasty palates: from the Basajo aged in Pantelleria passito to the Blu 61, the legendary herb-flavored cheese found in Harrod’s windows in London; the Dolomitico aged in Double Malt Beer and what about the smoked blue aged in black tea, which is an extravagant taste experience not to be missed? The Blu aged in Fior d'Arancio Passito from the Euganean Hills docg is, finally, a true delight, enhanced by candied Sicilian orange peels.
We at Spaghetti & Mandolino pride ourselves on having one of the most important selections of cheeses and of course, we couldn’t miss the one dedicated to herb-flavored cheeses, aptly defined as blue cheeses.
We have relied on small great artisans of taste, Italian refiners who prepare these products for great kitchens and starred chefs. Among them, the extraordinary selection of Blues from Sapori del Portico by Giuseppe Bernardinelli, the super-award-winning Gorgonzola by Palzola, and the aged Blues of the Carpenedo family of La Casearia Carpenedo.
Want to know our advice? A super platter with three or four of these still unusual and extraordinarily good cheeses, paired with a passito wine and a couple of honeys and mustards: there will be none left for anyone!
They are no longer a niche product. They are a universe. An invitation to overcome prejudices, to open up to new, bold flavors, sometimes surprising. A way to discover the beauty of complexity, the strength of the contrast between sweetness and sapidity, between creaminess and spiciness.
S&M
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