Blue Cheeses

Blue cheeses are easy to enjoy. Their creamy, sometimes crumbly texture and piquant, often dominant flavors are as good with fresh bread as with celery sticks or a handful of walnuts. They may be crumbled in salads, on pizza, or blended with cream in a cocktail dip. Blue cheeses may be used to stuff pasta or to flavor a soufflé. The firmer blues—Stilton, Danish Blue, Roquefort, Fourme d’Ambert, Bleu d’Auvergne and blue versions of English hard cheeses like Wensleydale—all crumble easily for whisking into white sauces, or the celebrated American blue cheese dressing. The softer, creamier blues, such as Gorgonzola and Bleu de Bresse, are generally reserved for the cheese tray, but Gorgonzola is also used in creamy pasta sauces, often combined with other cheeses that melt easily to produce a smooth texture.