Parmigiano Reggiano
This the prince of cheeses. Its nutritional content makes it a wholesome food-- highly digestible and versatile. A sprinkling of Parmigiano is good on anything. It's used in cooking for lasagna alla bolognese , inside tortellini stuffing, to flavor omlettes and to create a really tasty soufflé. Shaved Parmigiano is used to garnish paper-thin slices of beef called carpaccio ( kar pàt cho ) or to lend body and protein to tossed salads. More information on Parmigiano.

Grana Padano
Noted for its lightness and nutritive qualities, it is often used in pasta casseroles, vegetable dishes and savory pies. It serves beautifully as a stand-in for meat or fish as a second course. Moreore on Grana.

Gorgonzola
Its creamy texture and distictive taste make it an ideal dressing for salads, fresh gnocchi, Sardinian dried gnocchi or veal. It's a distant cousin of French Fromage Bleu, but sweeter to the taste, and easier to blend into recipes.

Fontina
A firm, compact easy-to-melt cheese. Much used in cooking, its slightly smokey taste adds a touch of class to first and second courses alike. Try it melted on hamburgers and diced onto salads.

"Quattro Formaggi": The four-cheese fusion of Gorgozola, Emmenthal, Taleggio and Fontina blends perfectly into pasta. It is the ideal sauce for "penne ai quattro formaggi"; also a tasty pizza topping.

Hard (or dry) Ricotta
Grate it over pasta! This type of Ricotta is produced primarily in Puglia, Umbria and Piemonte. Pugliese orecchiette pasta with sautéed garlic covered with grated Ricotta is really something special.

Fresh goat-milk Ricotta
Melt it over "sagne ", a hand-made whole wheat tagliatelle pasta eaten in Central Italy. Add Pecorino and you've got sagne alla mugnaia.

Pecorino Romano, Sardo, Toscano
These have come to be used in cooking in a multitude of ways. Any of them provides an excellent base for panzerotti (stuffed bread dough, fried), tortellini and ravioli.