Caciocavallo

A general name for a family of cheeses popular throughout southern Italy. There are variations of caciocavallo ranging from sweet and soft to piquant and hard. When you buy it, try to find out if it is from Campania, Calabria, Lucania, Apulia, or Sicily. You will probably develop preferences and, if you want to be authentic, you can match regional cheeses and recipes. The young soft cheese is for eating as is; the older caciocavallo is grainy and wonderful when grated on delicious southern Italian pasta dishes. Caciocavallo is made of cow’s milk and in its mature form has about 115 calories per ounce. Some caciocavallo is made with partially skimmed milk.