Always used to enhance meats and cheeses with its unique flavor, Mostarda has an important role in Italian cuisine.

Traditionally excellent with Bolliti and roasted meats, it is often used to rebalance the strong notes of cold cuts, aged or fresh cheeses and more generally to season and flavor dishes.

Why does it go well with cheeses?

Mustards and cheeses: two different elements that put together represent one of the most surprising combinations to try for a different meal than usual. However, combining cheeses and mustards is not so trivial: there are some fundamental rules to follow to be able to enhance every flavor and aroma.

The combination of cheese and mustard has now become part of the classics of Italian gastronomic culture: but how can two so different elements go so well together? The answer is simple: they are complementary. Cheeses are in fact sugar-free and find the ideal element for balance their flavor in the sweetness of mustards , jams, jellies, honeys and marmalades. For each cheese there is then the right mustardcombination to create the perfect balance of flavors and aromas.

How to choose the right mustard for a cheese?

First you need to consider the composition of the product and in particular the milk with which it was prepared: the intensity of the taste of a cheese changes a lot depending on whether this is prepared with cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk. The same goes for the type of pasta: fresh or soft cheeses are usually the sweetest, while the intensity of the flavor changes as you move on to semi-mature and mature cheeses.

To respect the fundamental rule of pairing, that is balance, the most seasoned and savory cheeses will therefore be paired with sweeter mustards: for example apples and pears, blackberries, figs, cherries.

Fresh, softer and sweeter cheeses are traditionally paired with mustards with a more sour taste: citrus mustard, peel mustard and mixed fruit are the most suitable if you want to taste fresh ricotta or robiola in an unusual way.

Let’s see more in detail which cheeses go well with some of our mustards in order to be able to compose the perfect cutting board!

Organic apples and pears – Fresh Crescence, Sbrinz

Organic citrus – A very classic combination is the one between citrus mustard, with a rather acrid flavor, and fresh and soft cheeses characterized by flavors tending to sweet: ricotta, Camembert and mascarpone .

Organic Onions – Montasio, Le Gruyère

Green tomato – Mozzarella and Fontina

Cherries – Robiola, Ricotta

Blackberries – The blackberry mustard is very versatile and can be combined, as required by the rule of contrast, with savory cheeses, such as the hard Bra and the seasoned Piave, but also with fresh cheeses such as ricotta and robiola to obtain combinations that play with the affinity of flavors.

Peaches – Very sweet and greedy, peach mostarda goes well with cheeses with a spicy flavor or with blue cheeses, such as Sardinian pecorino , the Pit cheese or the Gorgonzola .

Figs – Spicy Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Blue Stilton, Tiroler Graukase

Chestnuts – sweet gorgonzola, parmesan, pecorino

Cedar – Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano