AGED PROVOLONE

Provolone is an Italian cheese made from buffalo milk or cows’ milk. When aged for just a few months, provolone is sold as a table cheese; when aged for six months or longer, it becomes a very hard cheese used for grating.

Like mozzarella, provolone is pasta filata (pulled or stretched curd cheese); it is made by cutting newly formed cheese into leaflike slices, which are scaled or cooked and then kneaded like dough. The dough is pressed, molded, and immersed in a salt bath; then it is wrapped and secured in rope and hung up to age. The finished cheeses, prepared for aging, are named for their shape, the region where they were made, or their content, which may be buffalo or cows’ milk, or a mixture of the two, either of which may or may not be pasteurized.

Provolone cheeses come in an interesting range of shapes, sizes, and weights. The larger sizes and shapes are usually wrapped in raffia or rope, providing a practical (and artistic) means of hanging the cheese up to age. Most appropriate for household use are ball-shaped 1- to 3-pound (450 to 1,350g) and salami-shaped, 1- to 5-pound (450 to 2,250g) cheeses. As provolone ages, its white interior and light rind darken; the waxy texture becomes more crumbly, and the flavor, already sharp, becomes more piquant.