A Beginner’s Guide to Italian Cheeses

Italy makes hundreds of cheeses, and a deli counter can feel like a wall of unfamiliar names. Benvenuti. The reassuring news is that you don’t need to learn hundreds. This Italian cheeses guide sorts them into five families, and once you understand the families, any counter in the world becomes navigable.

Learn what each family does, learn three or four names within it, and you’ll be choosing confidently within a week. The families are grouped by how the cheese was made and how long it was aged, which is what determines its texture, its strength and what you should do with it.

Family one: hard and aged

These are the workhorses and the aristocrats of Italian cheese, aged for months or years until they turn dry, crystalline and deeply savoury.

Parmigiano Reggiano is the most famous, nutty and complex, with those crunchy crystals that come with proper ageing. Grana Padano is its gentler, more affordable cousin. Pecorino Romano is made from sheep’s milk, sharper and considerably saltier, and it’s the correct cheese for Roman pasta.

Use them grated over pasta, shaved into salads, or broken into chunks with a drizzle of honey. Never throw away the rinds, which give soups and sauces a savoury depth nothing else matches. Our guide to buying real Parmigiano explains how to spot the genuine article.

Family two: fresh

Made to be eaten within days, these are milky, delicate and mild.

Mozzarella comes as cow’s milk fior di latte or the richer buffalo-milk version. Burrata is a mozzarella pouch filled with cream, and it’s pure indulgence. Ricotta is soft, light and faintly sweet, at home in both savoury and sweet dishes. Mascarpone is the thick, buttery one that makes tiramisù.

Our burrata and mozzarella guide covers this family in more depth.

Family three: soft and semi-soft

Richer than fresh cheeses, and aged just long enough to develop character.

Taleggio is washed-rind, pungent on the nose but surprisingly gentle and buttery on the palate, and a good lesson in not judging cheese by its smell. Fontina is nutty and melts beautifully, which makes it excellent for cooking and the traditional choice for a Piedmontese fondue. Stracchino and crescenza are mild, spreadable and lovely on bread.

Family four: blue

Italy’s blue cheeses are more approachable than their reputation suggests.

Gorgonzola comes in two styles, and knowing the difference matters. Gorgonzola dolce is young, creamy and mild, spreadable enough for toast. Gorgonzola piccante is aged longer, firmer and considerably sharper. Start with the dolce, then work up.

Blues are wonderful with honey, walnuts and a sweet wine, which our cheese and wine pairing guide explains properly.

Family five: sheep and goat

Sheep’s milk cheese, pecorino, is a whole tradition of its own, and it changes character entirely with age. Pecorino fresco is young, soft and mild. Pecorino sardo and pecorino toscano sit in the middle, firm and nutty. Pecorino Romano is the hard, salty, aged extreme. Sheep’s milk gives a distinctive tang that cow’s milk never quite delivers, and it’s worth exploring once the more familiar cheeses feel comfortable.

How Italians actually eat cheese

Worth knowing, because it’s not how most of us learned. In Italy, cheese is rarely a starter. It comes after the main course and before dessert, as its own small course, eaten slowly with bread and perhaps a little fruit or honey. It’s also used generously in cooking, but with discipline: grated Parmigiano finishes a pasta, it doesn’t smother it, and no Italian would put cheese on a seafood dish.

The other habit worth borrowing is buying little and often. Rather than a large weekly shop, Italians tend to buy the cheese they need for the next few days, which is why the counters are busy and the cheese is always at its peak. It costs no more, and everything tastes better for it.

How to choose at the counter

Three questions get you to the right cheese quickly. What are you doing with it? Grating, melting, spreading and eating on a board all point in different directions. How bold do you want it? Ageing concentrates flavour, so older means stronger. Is it certified? DOP and IGP marks guarantee authenticity, as our guide to DOP, PDO and IGP labels sets out.

And do ask. A good cheese counter will let you taste, and a minute’s conversation beats ten minutes of guessing.

Your first Italian cheese board

If you’re starting out, five cheeses across the families make a generous, balanced board: an aged Parmigiano, a fresh burrata or mozzarella, a soft taleggio, a gorgonzola dolce and a mid-aged pecorino. That single selection teaches you the whole map of Italian cheese in one sitting, and it’s a genuinely lovely thing to put in front of people.

Serve them from mildest to strongest, at room temperature, with bread, honey, nuts and fruit. Our charcuterie board guide covers the arrangement, and our storage and serving guide keeps whatever’s left in good condition.

Where to buy Italian cheese in KL

Browse our imported Italian cheeses at the grocery store, delivered cold across the Klang Valley within the hour. Ask our team what’s particularly good that week, since cheese changes with the season and they taste it before you do.

Work through the families one at a time and the wall of names becomes a map. Salute, and enjoy the discovering.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. Which Italian cheese should I start with?
Ans. Parmigiano Reggiano, since it’s versatile, keeps for weeks and teaches you what proper ageing tastes like. A fresh mozzarella alongside it shows you the opposite end of the spectrum, and between them you’ll understand most of Italian cheese.

Q2. What’s the difference between Parmigiano and Pecorino?
Ans. Parmigiano is cow’s milk, nutty and complex. Pecorino is sheep’s milk, sharper and saltier. They aren’t interchangeable in Roman pasta dishes.

Q3. Is Grana Padano just cheaper Parmigiano?
Ans. It’s a genuine cheese in its own right, milder and aged for less time under different rules. It represents fair value for everyday cooking.

Q4. Which Italian cheeses melt best?
Ans. Fontina, mozzarella and taleggio melt beautifully. Hard aged cheeses like Parmigiano are better grated as a finish than relied on for melting.

Q5. I don’t like strong cheese, what should I try?
Ans. Stay in the fresh family with mozzarella, burrata and ricotta, or try gorgonzola dolce, which is far gentler than its blue veins suggest.

Q6. Is Italian cheese suitable for vegetarians?
Ans. Many traditional cheeses, including Parmigiano Reggiano, use animal rennet, so they aren’t strictly vegetarian. Check the label or ask us if it matters to you.

Q7. How much should I buy for a board?
Ans. Around 60 to 100g per person across three to five cheeses. Buying a little of several beats a lot of one.

Q8. Why does the same cheese taste different from one piece to the next?
Ans. Ageing, season and even the individual wheel all affect flavour, which is part of the pleasure of real cheese rather than a fault.

Q9. What should I drink with Italian cheese?
Ans. It depends on the cheese, though sparkling wine flatters almost all of them. Our pairing guide matches them properly.

Q10. Where can I buy Italian cheese in Kuala Lumpur?
Ans. From our cheese counter at the grocery store, delivered cold across the Klang Valley within the hour.