SERVES 4
Fresh cheese drizzled with honey and garnished with nuts and dried fruit couldn’t make for a simpler dessert. In Castilla (and indeed around Spain), the slightly firm queso fresco from Burgos is a favorite choice, while in Catalunya and along the Pyrenees mountain range, it’s mató. Mató is a soft, textured cheese, a bit grainy, made with pasteurized milk from cows, sheep, or a mixture of the two. (Originally it was from goat’s milk, though it is considered too heavy and greasy for many today.) Farmer cheese or ricotta is a good substitute. Traditionally mel i mató (literally “honey and mató”) is served with one of the lovely, bright dessert wines from the Mediterranean—those from Valencia and Alicante are especially nice—such as Muscatel or vino rancio. The latter is a sweet, fortified, and aged wine whose name translates literally to “rancid wine.” It is anything but. It is a bright, aged wine, oxidized by the sun in large glass jugs.
1. In a small ungreased skillet, warm the nuts over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Mound ½> cup/100 g of the cheese attractively on each dessert plate. Drizzle each with 1 tablespoon of the honey and sprinkle with the nuts and dried fruits. Serve with glasses of dessert wine.
NOTE: Farmer cheese is a type of cottage cheese. Most of the liquid is drained off, giving it a firm consistency and rich flavor. You can find it in the dairy case of most North American supermarkets.
The vast and varied selection of cheeses in Spain bespeaks a lengthy history and distinct traditions. They began in different places: in monasteries; along the ancient pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela; with shepherds in isolated hamlets and farmers in rural valleys. There are more than one hundred distinct cheeses across Spain—from the mountains along the French border to Galicia (where cheese—queso—is called queixo in Galician), from Andalucía to Catalunya (where it is called formatge in Catalan) and the Canary Islands. Cheese is made from the milk of cows, sheep, and goats, with some blending two or even three different types of milk. There are fresh cheeses, cured ones, blue-veined cheeses, ones with firm, toothy textures, others that are grainy or even crumbly. Nearly thirty Spanish cheeses have been awarded Denominación de Origen (D.O.) or Indicación Geográfica Protegida (I.G.P.) status.
Starting in the very northwest of the country and moving roughly clockwise, here are a dozen standouts.
Queixo Tetilla (Galicia): The word tetilla means “nipple” or “teat,” which refers to the shape of this tender Galician cow’s-milk cheese. Flavors are fresh, sometimes buttery; aromas pleasantly milky; and the texture creamy and a touch elastic. The rind is smooth and pale gold. Minimum aging is seven days.
Queixo do Cebreiro (eastern area of Lugo in Galicia): An unpressed cow’s-milk cheese that has a mushroom-like shape from spilling out of the top of the mold. Sold both fresh and cured, it has yogurty aromas and a milky, slightly bitter flavor. Its origins are attributed to Benedictine monks who established a hospital for pilgrims in the mid-ninth century in the village of O Cebreiro. Back in the eighteenth century, it was the most expensive cheese in Spain.
Idiazábal (Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country and northwestern Navarra): Made from the milk of the Latxa and Carranzana breeds of sheep, this firm, smooth cheese is smoked over beech wood, alder, cherry wood, and green hawthorn to add a distinctive aroma and flavor. (In the lower valleys, you can also find it unsmoked.) That flavor, though, should be light rather than intense or overpowering, retain the classic tastes of sheep’s-milk cheeses, and have a final sensation of delicateness lacking any bitterness. It is ideal with quince paste and some walnuts.
Queso de Cabrales (Asturias): An intense blue cheese aged for two to four months on wooden shelves inside the natural caves of the Picos de Europa mountains. Usually made with only cow’s milk, it’s sometimes blended with sheep’s or goat’s milk. The cheese has a soft, somewhat sticky rind and ivory-white interior riddled with a profusion of blue veins. The consistency is slightly granular, the aroma intense and penetrating, and the flavor milky and salty with slightly acidic notes and a spiciness that deepens with tasting—and persists. Wonderful.
Formatge l’Alt d’Urgell i la Cerdanya (Catalan Pyrenees): A cured cow’s-milk cheese from the Pyrenees mountains in northwest Catalunya. This firm, ivory-toned cheese has an up-front, persistent flavor, milky, with notes of both a slight saltiness and vague sweetness.
Tupí (Catalan Pyrenees): Grainy, ivory colored, and spreadable, this fermented shepherd’s cheese is made using hard, leftover goat’s cheese. The cheese is grated, moistened with olive oil and aguardiente de orujo (like grappa, a distillation from pomace), and aged in small clay pots (called tupí in Catalan) where the cheese ripens into characteristic sharp, aggressive, and piquant flavors. Strong and greasy, and utterly delicious.
Mató (Catalan Pyrenees): Fresh mató has a soft, slightly granular texture, at times almost sandy, with a milky, salt-free freshness. It can be made from the milk of cows or goats or a blend of the two. It ideally partners with honey and some dried nuts for a dessert.
Queso Mahón (Menorca): In preparing this cow’s-milk cheese, the curds are placed in a bag (as opposed to a hard mold) that is knotted and pressed. The final form is a flattened, boxy shape with soft corners. The rind has a golden-orange hue from being rubbed with olive oil, lard, and pimentón (paprika). There are four levels of curing—tierno (aged 21 to 60 days), semicurado (2 to 5 months), curado (5 months), and an even longer-aged one called añejo. Wedges of añejo are bold, salty, and even somewhat brittle.
Queso de Tronchón (Aragón): Found in the mountainous Maestrazgo range, and containing a mix of goat’s and sheep’s milk, it is molded into a roundish form with a crater in the top and bottom and aged from 3 to 8 months. It has a glossy butter-yellow rind, while the interior is ivory colored, springy, with a smooth texture, and pleasing dairy aromas. Cervantes twice mentions the cheese in the second part of Don Quixote, most memorably when a messenger tells Sancho Panza: “If your lordship wants a drink, although warm, pure, I have a gourd full of expensive wine, with I do not know how many slices of Tronchón cheese, which will serve as an attention-getter and wake-up to your thirst, in case it’s sleeping.”
Queso Manchego (La Mancha): Spain’s most famous cheese is made exclusively from the Manchega breed of sheep that graze the herby, dry scrub of La Mancha in the center of the country. A bold, classic cheese, with older wheels becoming sharp and slightly grainy.
Torta del Casar (central plains of Extremadura): This unique and ancient sheep’s cheese is aged for 60 to 90 days in humid conditions and turned over every day until ripe. To eat, you slice the top off like a lid and spoon out the pale-yellow cheese. It’s soft and spreadable, greasy and stiffly creamy, with smooth but intense aromas and slightly bitter flavors. Best at room temperature spread over crackers or toasted bread. One of Spain’s great delicacies.
Queso Zamorano (Zamora in Castilla y León): A pressed, compact sheep’s-milk cheese from the Churra and Castellana breeds in the northwestern meseta. Cylinder-shaped with a yellowish rind, the compact, ivory-toned interior has a smooth texture and milky, buttery flavors. Tastes are intense, and lightly piquant in longer-aged cheeses. Minimum maturing is 100 days.
