Petit Basque Petit Basque is a traditional sheep’s milk cheese of the French Pyrénées Mountains with a pale cream-colored interior and an amber wax rind. Fruity, nutty and olivey with a velvety feel on the tongue, it is a delight served with fresh walnuts and dates after a meal. Port-Salut This cheese is related to Port du Salut, with which it is often confused. It is produced in Entrammes, in the department of Mayenne in northwest France. The rind of the cheese is slightly moist and colored, with regular traces of the plastic-covered cloth used in production. It has a very faint smell. The center is elastic, cream-colored, soft, and supple. Affinage takes one month. Raclette Raclette is a cow’s milk cheese that derives its name from racler (meaning to scrape in French). The cheese is made in the form of a wheel, about 3 inches thick and 13 to 17 inches in diameter, weighing about 15 pounds. The rind is yellow to dark-beige; the pâte3 is firm, uncooked, unpressed with a seductive light yellow color. Once melted, the taste is nutty, fruity...a sheer delight. The fame, sympathy and interest of the Raclette is in the way it is most enjoyed. One gathers round a table, cuts the cheese in half and then melts the cheese over a Raclette machine or other heating device (originally a fire). Served melted with baked potatoes and cooked and cured meats, the cheese demonstrates all its delicious gustative qualities. In a mountain chalet after a day’s skiing one is taken a step nearer to paradise. The cheese dates back to Roman times when it was used as a form of money exchanged for other essential goods. Local farmers have passed the methods of production down through the generations. Ricotta Salata This is a cheese made from 100% sheep’s milk. Characteristic of Southern Italy, it is enjoyable for cooking, salads or on its own and is available in semi-soft form or hard, which is used mostly for grating. The hard Ricotta comes as either Testa di Moro (ball shaped), in the individual serving size form of a cone & as a cylinder. Frescolina is a cone with crushed red pepper. Roasted Ricotta - soft Ricotta roasted in the oven for a sweet finish. Ricotta Salata, or salted ricotta, is one of Italy’s most unusual and least understood sheep’s milk cheeses. The milk curds and whey used to make this cheese are pressed and dried even before the cheese is aged, giving this pure white cheese a dense but slightly spongy texture and a salty, milky flavor -- like a dry Italian feta. Despite its name, this is not ricotta as Americans have come to know ricotta. In Italian, ricotta simply means “re-cooked.” It is a cheese-making process rather than a specific cheese. Sicily, because of its abundance of sheep, is justifiably famous for its sheep’s milk cheeses. 124 ~ Fresh Products 2013 - 2014 Annual Catalog