copyright 2018 Art of Living, PrimaMedia, Inc/Maria Liberati
Guest Editor: Danasha Wise
My favorite kitchen tool, nearby all the time, my Parmigiano Reggiano..and a cheese grater.. adds superb flavor to almost any meal! Maria Liberati
National Cheese Day (June 4)
Did you know that the average American consumes about 31 pounds of cheese each year? If there is one food that can be deliciously integrated into both sweet and savory dishes, its CHEESE! Cheese can be enjoyed as a snack or incorporated in one of your favorite pasta dishes or any other recipe.
There are more than 900 cheese types, classified by taste and texture. Here are the primary classifications and some examples: fresh cheese (ricotta); soft cheese (feta); semi-soft cheese (Fontina); semi-hard cheese (Gouda); hard cheese (Cheddar); double or triple crème cheese (Brillat-Savarin); blue cheese (Gorgonzola); washed rind cheese (Limburger); and bloomy rind cheese (Brie).
The top five most popular kinds of cheese in the world include (in no order):
- Mozzarella
- Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Cheddar
- Brie
- Gouda
“One of my favorite things about Emilia-Romagna, besides its’ beauty -is Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese- which makes any dish yummy,” says Maria Liberati, (www.marialiberati.com), author of the Gourmand World Award Winning book series The Basic Art of Italian Cooking. Cheese is a food that is extremely universal. Cheese is the greatest connector for finding a new friend.
You can celebrate this day by making your favorite cheesy dish. If you are a self-proclaimed cheese lover, indulge in your favorite type of cheese for national cheese day!
Here is an easy, 2 ingredient, cold fondue perfect for upcoming summer picnics
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of cream (be sure the cream does not contain sugar or any sweetener)
- 2 ½ cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheesecake
Instructions
- Place cream in a saucepan and heat on medium, just before it begins to boil, remove from heat
- Then add in the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese a little at a time, blending with a wire whisk or electric whisk
- Blend for 3 minutes till creamy
- Filter the liquid through a piece of cheesecloth, and place in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, mixing a few times while cooling
- Before serving, whip again with wire whisk or electric whisk. Serve cold and use a dip for grissini and/or breadsticks
Celebrity Chef/Award Winning Author-blogger Maria Liberati is the author of the Gourmand World Award Winning book series The Basic Art of Italian Cooking. She is executive editor of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati and blog at http://www.marialiberati.com/blog2- winner of culinary travel blog of the year 2013 by the NY Travel Writers’ Society, and with 300,000 worldwide subscribers. She is considered one of the foremost experts on Italian culinary arts and heritage and is frequently seen on TV and radio, working on her own PBS TV series currently. Maria has been featured in many well-known publications including Woman’s World, Cooking Light, Tastes of Italia, the San Francisco Chronicle and many others.
Connect with Maria on twitter!
