Dear Member,
October… a BOO-tiful and bountiful month…filled with the new flavors of the fall harvest and the tasty treats of Halloween. YUM…We here at Carlino’s are ready! We are visiting Spain…at least with our taste buds during the month of October; enjoying the foods and especially the Cheeses of the mountains and the plains.
The topography of the country has a great deal to do with the resultant cheese. In Spain we find a preponderance of sheep…indigenous to the country but also reinforced by the Roman conquerors who occupied the Iberian Peninsula for six hundred years. The Roman armies traveled with their sheep, and sheep milk cheeses, throughout the country.
The sheep was the most profitable of all livestock. It provided not only milk and meat, but also wool for clothing and skin that could be sold to parchment merchants. Sheep are less temperamental eaters than cows and more nimble on rough terrains. It is a good thing they are; Spain exhibits dramatic contrasts in land patterns ranging from wet, densely wooded plateaus and mountains to arid esparto covered hills. Therefore, ewe’s milk cheese are found all over the county, while cows’ milk types are confined to the wetter north and goats’ milk cheese to the mountain ranges.
Spanish cheeses are, for the most part, regional and uncommercialized. We are fortunate that there are some exceptions and the Manchego is one of them.
Manchego is Spain’s most famous cheese and is made in the plain of La Mancha. It is beautiful sheep milk cheese, with a firm, ivory to golden paste, dotted with a few tiny eyes. The sides of the finished cheese are impressed with braided esparto grass in a pattern that prompts some to say that it looks like a tire.
As with many Italian cheeses, Manchego is sold at various stages of maturity (it is aged in natural caves) and its use is dictated by its age. When young it is eaten for dessert; when older try it cubed and fried in Carlino’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil or preserved in the same.
Patty Church
-Carlino’s Executive Cheese Specialist
Featured Cheese – Cabrales
Cabrales is another great Spanish cheese that has managed to make its way (Cabrales is from northern Spain’s Asturian Mountains) onto the world market and into Carlino’s Market. Cabrales is wrapped in Sycamore leaves and made from a combination of pasteurized cow, sheep and/or goats milk that helps create an intriguing strong and lingering flavor and aroma. Aging and molding of this assertive blue takes place in caves. This cave-aging helps sharpen its “horns” and maximize its “nose.” Cabrales is creamy, spicy and peppery.
Just Arrived
Carlino’s Parmigiano Dipping Sauce
Carlino’s Parmigiano Dipping Sauce is a combination of our award winning Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the King of all Italian Cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano and a selection of our favorite herbs and spices. This irresistible and versatile dipping sauce can be used as a marinade for meats and chicken, a salad dressing for your favorite greens, or as finishing oil for grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes or pasta. Carlino’s Parmigiano Dipping Sauce can be found online and in many of our gift baskets.
Click here to buy Carlino’s Parmigiano Dipping Sauce
Cheese Goes With: Beer
Cheese and beer have been coupled throughout history. For Mediaeval Monks of Belgium, cheese and beer were not only staples of their diet but they were also used as staples of currency. Even today in the bars in Belgium the gratis snack bowl on the bar is cubes of semi-soft cheese sprinkled with celery salt.
| BEER TYPE | CARLINO’S CHEESE |
| Belgium | Applewood Smoked Cheddar |
| Bock, Dark Lager or Oktoberfest | Piave |
| Pale or Amber Ale | Carlino’s Extra Sharp Provolone |
| Strong Ale | Gorgonzola Picante |
| Pilsner | Trugole |
| Wheat Ale | Humboldt Fog |
| Cream Ale | Fromager D’Affinois |
| Porter | Picante |
| Brown Ale | Bellavitano |
| Stout | Beemster Extra Old |
| Barley Wine | Cabrales |
| Lager | St. Angel |
| Light Lager | French Raclette |
| Amber Lager | Gran Pecorino Carlino |
All perfect for your personal Oktoberfest!
Recipe: Baked Pasta with 2 X 2 Cheese
The combination of the flavors of different countries has always intrigued us. The melting pot…perhaps this first was true of cheese…and if it was, then how appropriate of us to combine the cheese of Italy and Spain to come up with this recipe for Baked Pasta with 2 X 2 Cheese.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
½ cup of cubed Italian Fontina
1 ½ cup of grated Italian Parmigiano Reggiano
½ cup of crumbed Spanish Cabrales
½ cup of cubed Spanish Macnchego
1 pound of Carlino’s penne pasta
For the Bechamel:
2 cups whole milk
3 Tbls. Unsalted butter
3 Tbls. Flour
¼ tsp. Salt
Nutmeg (if possible, freshly grated)
Ingredients
In a medium saucepan, heat milk over medium-low heat: bring just to a boil then remove from heat. In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add flour. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes (do not brown). Remove from heat.
Add 2 tablespoons of the milk to the flour mixture, stirring constantly until the milk is incorporated. Repeat until ½ cup of milk has been added. Add remaining milk ½ cup at a time, incorporating it, until all the milk has been added. Return to low heat and cook, stirring, until the béchamel is the consistency of thick cream. Stir in salt and season with nutmeg. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
Combine the Fontina, Manchego and Cabrales in a large bowl.
Combine the Fontina, Manchego and Cabrales in a large bowl. Cook penne according to directions for al dente.
Drain and add to bowl with cheese, add béchamel and toss together to combine well. Transfer pasta to a baking dish, sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano and bake in pre-heated 475 degree oven, until heated through, about 10 minutes.
Mary Graham-Zak
Just made the baked penne pasta with 2 x 2 cheeses! It was a huge hit! We will be having this again and I can’t wait to serve it to guests. This is a keeper and will be part of our family recipes going forward!
Mary
carlinosmarket
That’s wonderful! Thank you for the comment. Have a good day!