Squacquerone is a fresh & Italian tangy cow cheese that is normally more associated with Le Marche than Abruzzo, but happily the Lago Campotosto based artisan cheesemakers, La Mascionara, have taken this cheese and given it an Abruzzo style wake-up as if it wasn’t perfect enough already…
Generally Squacquerone is made in the cooler months of Autumn & Winter which allow this cheese to be kept for a little longer, the ever important euro key to the farmers that make this cheese. Fluffy and white are adjectives that this cheese is associated with, even being used for a tortellini filling, but this Abruzzo mature variation twists in a new collection of Gran Sasso Mountain flavours. Delicate but oh-so-clever grazing on assorted grasses and herbs in high pastures provides an infused milk, that perfectly complements the herbed crust made up of the 30 Gran Sasso herbs and spices that make this spreadable but mature fresh cheese divine.
Juniper, marjoram, pepperoncino and rosemary are just some of the loud but clean flavours that mingle to give this cheese a gentle kick that transports you to thoughts of a post lunch ramble up in Abruzzo’s mountains. Since I discovered this at the Buon Gusto Cheese Fair in Gessopalena I’ve eaten it on skinny slithers of crusty pizza bianco but I really want to try it for supper melted on some heavyweight fried polenta squares with a big glass of chilled Pecorino as soon as we get a nip in the air.
