Asiago

I have just discovered Asiago allevo, one of the varieties of asiago, and have to report it as excellent. It is a hard cheese much like Cheddar in texture, and in flavour something like Parmesan but much less salty, and very pleasant and tangy and palatable on its own, again somewhat like a good Cheddar, though lighter.

It comes from the Asiago plateau in the provinces of Trento and Vicenza and nearby, and such a cheese has been made there for a thousand years. The young pale-straw variety is called pressato or fresco and the mature light-yellow one is allevo or d'allevo. Depending on the amount of ageing it is further classified from mezzano to vecchio to extra-old, stravecchio.

It is (for a cheese) low in fat and high in protein.

Asiago cheese is an excellent addition to alfredo sauce. It melts just as easily as parmesan cheese and, as aforementioned, is a bit milder in taste, which adds complexity to the sauce's flavor. Try grating half asiago and half parmesan into your next batch of alfredo sauce.

Asiago is also a great bagel topping; most Bagel Cafe and Panera locations sell asiago-topped bagels. The cheese is an invaluable tangy complement to the bland bagel dough. It coats the bagel almost entirely during the baking process and melts around the edges and the inside to create a phenomenon best described as "asiago crunchies."