Cooking with Fresh Cheese

From burrata to paneer, fresh cheeses draw attention for their versatility.

By Kate Leahy, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 2/20/2008

Aged cheeses, from Parmigiano-Reggiano to England’s sharp farmhouse cheddar, are distinct, flavorful and well-suited for grating or out-of-hand eating. When it comes to cooking, however, fresh cheeses can be more adaptable.

Says Michael Dotson, executive chef of Sens in San Francisco, “They are very versatile because they don’t have those strong, complex flavors.”

Such neutrality lends itself well to menu development, where cheeses offer nuanced textures, varied densities, and mild to tangy flavor. The one common thread? They’re at their best when used soon after they are made.

Often made from fresh milk or the whey remaining from cheese making, fresh cheeses are rindless, white or cream-colored and can be creamy, crumbly, or firm. Many are stored in whey or brine, which can make it necessary to strain off extra liquid before using them.

• DEFINITION
  • Resembling a large ball of fresh mozzarella with a topknot, burrata was created in the 1920s around Bari, the main city in the Southern Italian region Puglia. Cheesemakers fill a freshly made ball of cow’s milk mozzarella with a mixture of cream and stracciatella, the curds left over from mozzarella making, then tie the ball closed. Burrata is very perishable and is best when eaten soon after it is made.
• APPLICATION
  • Burrata most often is served at room temperature as an appetizer. At A Mano in Chicago, Executive Chef John Caputo serves imported burrata with smoked salmon and arugula, finishing the dish with balsamic vinegar reduced to a syrup consistency. Before fresh tomatoes reach their peak, Chef Walter Pisano from Tulio Ristorante in Seattle serves a tomato jam with burrata.
  • RECIPE: Burrata with Tomato Jam, Arugula, and Olive Oil (shown)

• DEFINITION
  • While not a true cheese, crème fraîche is a popular garnish on appetizers and soups. It’s a fresh cream soured with the addition of culture and is easy to make by combining milk with buttermilk or lemon juice and refrigerating the mixture for a few days until the cream begins to thicken.
• APPLICATION
  • Crème fraiche folded into whipped cream adds tang to a dessert. It also can be used to garnish soup. At 1300 on Fillmore in San Francisco, Chef David Lawrence uses crème fraîche to garnish an oyster bisque with fried okra.

• DEFINITION
  • A slightly tangy, soft Italian cheese, crescenza melts well in baked pastas or on pizza. It ages briefly for about two weeks, which gives it a hint of tartness.
• APPLICATION
  • At Sens in San Francisco, Executive Chef Michael Dotson bakes whole grain flatbread topped with olive oil, braised greens and small dollops of crescenza. Crescenza also makes a good substitute for ricotta or mozzarella in lasagna.

• DEFINITION
  • The classic, salty Greek cheese is made by curdling cow, sheep, or goat cheese with rennet. The drained curds are sliced into large pieces, packed in brine, and cured for at least one week or up to a few months.
• APPLICATION
  • Chef/owner Michael Smith purées feta with oregano and sherry and red wine vinegars until smooth, then mixes it with olive oil and minced shallot for a vinaigrette that dresses a Boston lettuce salad with Serrano ham and grapes at his eponymous restaurant in Kansas City, Mo.
  • RECIPE: Frisee and Boston Lettuce Salad with Feta Vinaigrette

• DEFINITION
  • Originally from Cyprus, halloumi is a firm cheese with a high melting point. Traditional Cypriot halloumi is made with a mix of goat’s and sheep’s milk, but today cow’s milk often is added. “It’s salty and sharp at the same time,” says Executive Chef Michael Dotson of Sens in San Francisco. The high melting point is achieved by cooking the curds longer than is usual for fresh cheeses, then pressing the curds together into molds and storing the molds in salted water.
  • RECIPE: Grilled Halloumi with Citrus-Olive Salad (shown)
• APPLICATION
  • “It’s best on its own. I grill it, do a little citrus and olive salad,” Dodson says. Because the cheese has a high melting point, it fries and grills well. Dodson brushes thick slices of the cheese with extra virgin olive oil, seasons them with salt, then grills them briefly. He advises to rinse the cheese well before slicing if it tastes especially salty.

• DEFINITION
  • A middle eastern cheese made from drained yogurt, lebne is thick and tangy, pairing well with honey, herbs or Near eastern spices, such as zaatar.
• APPLICATION
  • Lebne can be used in place of yogurt or sour cream, as Pastry Chef of Sens, Shuna Fish Lydon, explores in her blog.

• DEFINITION
  • This Northern Italian cheese, made by adding tartaric acid to hot cream, then chilling the cream and draining the curd from the whey, might be best known as a classic ingredient in tiramisu. “It has a rich sweetness, like heavy cream,” says Chef/Owner Michael Smith of Michael Smith in Kansas City, Mo. But though the thick creamy cheese often is used in desserts, it works well in savory applications.
• APPLICATION
  • Smith adds a dollop of mascarpone to wilted spinach to give it the creamy consistency needed for his braised short rib lasagna appetizer. He also mixes mascarpone with chopped black trumpet mushrooms or black truffles and uses it to finish sauces.
  • RECIPE: Short Rib Lasagna with Mascarpone Spinach and Carbonara Sauce

• DEFINITION
  • This simple, popular cheese is made by heating milk, adding citric acid and rennet to it, cutting curds, then pulling the curds into balls. While this traditional Southern Italian cheese, once was made with buffalo milk, today it is most often made with cow’s milk. To differentiate it from mozzarella di bufala, Italians refer to the cow’s milk version as fiore di latte.
• APPLICATION
  • Handmade mozzarella, as opposed to processed mozzarella, is very perishable and adds a lot more moisture to a dish than does processed mozzarella. Restaurants specializing in Neapolitan-style pizza use fresh mozzarella sparingly on top of their pizzas (about 3 ounces) to prevent soggy crusts.
  • When summertime tomato season is in full swing, caprese salads are easy to find. At Ritual Supper Club, Executive Chef Andrew Pastore differentiates his offering, stacking tomatoes and mozzarella dressed with ponzu and truffle juice for a heirloom tomato Napoleon (r.) . In winter months, Executive Chef Jennifer Jasinski gives the salad a winter spin, baking mozzarella wrapped in smoked prosciutto and serving it with grilled bread, oven-dried tomatoes and green olive pistou at Rioja in Denver.

• DEFINITION
  • Indigenous to India, paneer is a firm cheese made of curdled milk proteins that have been pressed together and expelled of whey. The end result is a high protein cheese with a consistency slightly firmer than firm tofu.
• APPLICATION
  • Kirti Pant, executive chef at Junnoon in Palo Alto, Calif., uses paneer for vegetarian entrees. For one such dish, he grates paneer, seasons it with cumin seeds, chopped ginger, jalapeños, red peppers, turmeric and garam masala, and mixes it with a little potato purée. He shapes the mixture into patties, breads them with chickpea flour and panko and fries them, serving the patties with a slow-cooked tomato and onion sauce seasoned with Kashmiri chili powder and fenugreek. For braised dishes, he recommends flash-frying cubes of paneer to soften them.
  • RECIPE: Paneer Cake

• DEFINITION
  • Italian for “recooked,” this mild, very soft cheese can be made with the whey left from cheese making or fresh cow’s milk. When salted, wrapped in cheesecloth, and slowly dried, it becomes ricotta salata, which often is used for grating on pastas and salads.
• APPLICATION
  • Classic Italian meatballs contain ricotta for lightness. Chef/Owner Michael Smith of Michael Smith in Kansas City, Mo. has extended the idea to sausage making, “just a spoonful or two to create that emulsification,” he explains. And at Bacar in San Francisco, Executive Chef Robbie Lewis uses it on pizzas with figs in the summer and pears in the winter.