igourmet Italian Cheese Board Gift Set - 4 Of The Best Gourmet Italian Cheeses On A Wooden Cheese Board, and a Professional Cheese Knife All Wrapped Into One Spectacular Italian Grade Gift

Magnificent Cheese Assortment From Italy - The Ultimate Gift That Keeps On Giving

Hello Italy!

Americans tend to use Italian cheeses in their cooking, and they are wonderful for this purpose. This board, however, allows you to taste three Italian cheeses independently, without the masking of other foods.

• Pecorino Toscano: This young sheep's milk cheese has a smooth, semi-soft texture and a flavor that hints of the wildflowers and herbs of the Tuscan countryside. (7.5 oz)
• Mountain Gorgonzola: From Italy's Lombardy region, we present Mountain Gorgonzola, a sharp and tangy cheese. With its white interior laced with streaks of blue, this is an attractive table cheese and a savory ingredient in your favorite salad. (7.5 oz)
• Provolone Piccante: The piccante (sharp) version of this classic Italian cheese is more complex and great on sandwiches or chunked. (7.5 oz)
• Grana Padano Stravecchio Oro del Tempo: This superior product, aged for 22 months, is a world-class hard cheese. Second to none! (7.5 oz)
• igourmet.com Signature Cheese Serving Knife: Specifically crafted for igourmet.com, this multi-function cheese knife is the perfect tool to easily slice uniform servings of your favorite cheese.
• Dark Wood Cheese Board: A stunning and durable gift that will be enjoyed for years to come. (Dimensions: 9x11)

Italian Pecorino Toscano Cheese

This cheese is our favorite Pecorino Toscano from Italy, but aged for an additional three to four months by the cheese masters at Il Forteto in Tuscany. Pecorino Toscano Stagionato DOP is created from locally collected sheep's milk during September and June. As it ages, the cheese loses its milky white color and takes on a hay-colored, ivory hue. The sweet, silken texture of the original cheese slowly gives way to a sharp, zesty flavor with a brittle texture. Pecorino Toscano Stagionato DOP is perfect for chunking into romaine and dandelion green salads, or rolled in extra virgin olive oil and served as part of an antipasto tray.

• Made from pasteurized sheep's milk.
• Photo depicts whole 4 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by hand.
• Please see item 4240 if you would like to purchase the whole form.

Italian Mountain Gorgonzola Cheese

From Italy's Lombardy region, we present Mountain Gorgonzola, a sharp and tangy cheese. Like many cheeses, this cheese takes its name from the local town where it was created, Gorgonzola, just south of Milan. There, a simple fresh cheese was made for generations, until a few forgotten wheels were found to have turned blue with mold. This edible mold was a natural part of the terroir, coming from the local caves of Valsassina. Upon tasting the moldy cheese, the local dairymen found it to be delicious, and allowed their wheels to go moldy on purpose. Thus Stracchino di Gorgonzola, Italy's most famous blue cheese, was born.

Today the cheese is more well-known than the town, and not without reason. Made of cow's milk, this thick, sliceable blue has a fudgey texture and gentle blue bite. Not as sharp as Roquefort or as pungent as Stilton, Mountain Gorgonzola is a consistently delightful cheese that will convert even non-blue cheese eaters into fans. As it ages, the 14 lb drums of cheese are gently washed with a saltwater brine, allowing the cheese to stay moist and smooth. This also gives Mountain Gorgonzola its thin, pinkish-red rind. With its white interior laced with streaks of blue, Mountain Gorgonzola is an attractive table cheese and a savory ingredient in your favorite salad. Gorgonzola takes very well to fruits, especially figs and pears. Or try it the Italian way-– alone on a plate drizzled with honey.

• Whole form is 14 pounds.
• We cut and wrap this item by hand.

Italian Provolone Piccante Cheese

Provolone is a northern Italian cheese that can be thought of as Mozzarella's older brother. Take some Mozzarella, form it into your favorite shape, rub it down with brine, bind it with rope, and hang it from the ceiling for a few months. Voila! - you have just made Provolone. There are two varieties of Provolone. Dolce (meaning sweet) is the mild version and Piccante (meaning sharp) is its spicy, more aged counterpart. We love this Piccante version, which is rarely available in the U.S. and is much more interesting than the mild Provolone most Americans have come to know. One of the great sandwich cheeses, Provolone Piccante is also an excellent melting cheese that is perfect in omelettes or atop a toasted focaccia.

• Made from pasteurized cow's milk; aged over nine months.
• Photo depicts whole 66 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by hand.

Italian Grana Padano Stravecchio Oro del Tempo Cheese

Stravecchio Oro del Tempo is a superior, 24-month aged Grana Padano produced by Agriform near Venice. This masterpiece compares beautifully with its better-known cousin Parmigiano Reggiano. The flavor of Stravecchio is intense and complex, with fruity overtones that evoke pineapple or strawberry, depending on the season. Like all precious things, every Stravecchio cheese is one of a kind, and each wheel is branded with a unique serial number. Agriform tests the quality of each wheel of Stravecchio every week until the twentieth month of aging. The end result of this rigorous testing process is that only the cheeses that deserve to become prime Grana Padano Stravecchio are stamped with the certificate of origin and brand.

• Made from unpasteurized cow's milk.
• Wheel is 80 lb. form of cheese.
• We cut and wrap this item by hand.