10 Best Fontina Cheese Recipes No One Can Resist (2024)

FAQs

What is fontina cheese best used for? ›

NATURALLY, Fontina is awesome in all sorts of Italian dishes. Pizza, pasta, quiche, and gratins are all more dazzling with fontina. Fontina never met a warm chicken sandwich it didn't pair well with.

Fontina is excellent with dried dark fruits like dates, raisins, and figs, as well as chocolate, port, or sherry. Because it's a little on the funky side, sweet accompaniments are nice contrasts. When cooked, Fontina goes gooey.

Traditional Fontina cheese originates in the Aosta Valley of Italy where the cows only graze on alpine grass. Fontina has a PDO designation, encouraging makers of this kind of cheese domestically, or in other areas outside of this Italian region, to package and sell it under a different name.

Mild provolone, gruyere, and gouda cheeses may all be substituted for fontina, depending on your personal preference and the other ingredients in your dish. Why such a wide range of choices? Because fontina cheese is similarly available in a wide range of flavors and textures.

(Spoiler alert if you want the highlight reel: Fontina and Fontal are nearly interchangeable when it comes to taste and texture, and they're both perfect for melting, sauce making, easy entertaining, egg scrambling, and can be substituted in for most other cheeses.)

The best way to store fontina is in a vacuum, which will allow it to keep for up to 2 or 3 months. Once opened, it should be kept refrigerated, wrapped in food-grade paper and in an airtight container. This will allow it to keep for about ten days.

When properly stored, opened Fontina can be kept for up to 10 days. To freeze Fontina, make sure it is well sealed in a plastic bag or plastic wrap. Keep the cheese in the refrigerator overnight to defrost.

Fontina PDO is a semi-cooked cheese, obtained from whole cow's milk produced by Valdostana cattle breeds (Pezzata Rossa, Pezzata Nera and Castana).

Yes, in most cases you are encouraged to eat the rind. If the cheese is wrapped in a fabric-like bandage or wax, you should not eat the rind. Swedish Fontina is a great example of a cheese that you would first need to take off the wax rind before eating. There are some implications with regard to etiquette.

As with many other varieties, the name "fontina" has derivatives such as "fontinella", "fontal", and "fontella".

Is fontina good for charcuterie? ›

Charcuterie and Cheese Board

2-3 Soft Cheese Selections, brie, camembert, cambozola, burrata, bleu, fontina, goat, etc. 2-3 Semi-Hard Cheese Selections gouda, white cheddar, manchego, gruyere, etc.

No need to worry - these tiny white specks are actually a good thing. They're most likely calcium lactate crystals, also known as “cheese crystals.” They are completely safe to eat, and usually signify that a cheese is flavorful and well-aged.

Types of Fontina

Swedish or Danish-style Fontina, which is made with pasteurized milk and is packaged in red wax, features a mild, milky flavor, is known for slicing well and melting perfectly. American-style Fontina is even milder, and is also made from pasteurized milk.

Fontina: A soft white cheese with great meltability that works great on pizza, soup, or fondue! Seasonal Item. Product Code: 14686.

Top the dough with Mozzarella Cheese sliced rounds, grated Fontina Cheese and grated Parmesan Cheese. Place the pizza into the preheated oven and bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until the pizza crust is golden and the Cheeses are melted and slightly bubbly.

Emmental is a mild swiss cheese that is similar to fontina. It has a similar nutty flavor and can be used, like fontina, as a cooking cheese or cubed for snacking.

What Does Fontina Cheese Taste Like? Fontina cheese has a nutty, earthy, and buttery flavor. Italian variations tend to be sharper in flavor compared to varieties of Fontina that are made elsewhere.

Mozzarella is a traditional Italian cheese that is made from water buffalo milk and contain a bit more fat. It has a soft, springy texture and a slightly sweet flavor. On the other hand, Fontina is a French cheese made from cow's milk. It has a firmer texture and a more intense flavor.

Incredibly rich and creamy, the flavors of this cheese are sweet and pungent, unveiling tones of butter and roasted nuts as it lingers on your palate. Traditionally made from unpasteurized milk, the texture is semi-hard, smooth and adorned with small holes in the body.