Six-month aged with sharp character and a lingering peppery finish.
Aged Italian provolone with a sharp, peppery finish. Firm pasta filata cheese from Lombardy, great shaved over pasta or with a Chianti.
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Provolone Piccante is a cow's milk pasta filata cheese from northern Italy, aged for six months or more to earn the piccante label. The curds are stretched by hand, shaped into large forms, and hung with rope to dry as they age, which gives the cheese its dense, sliceable paste and pale straw color.
The piccante style comes from using kid or lamb rennet during make, which drives that sharp, peppery bite as the cheese matures. You get a savory tang up front, a browned-butter note through the middle, and then that trademark peppery finish that lingers on the back of the palate. The paste is firm, breaks cleanly under the knife, and takes well to shaving over hot pasta or eating in thin slices with a glass of red.
This is a cheese with real backbone. If you've only known provolone from a deli sandwich, the piccante version is a different animal, aged long enough to develop character and heat that stands up to bold pairings.
Firm and dense, sliceable with a slight flake at the edges. The paste is compact and pale straw-colored, breaking cleanly rather than crumbling.
Bold and assertive. The piccante style leans into sharpness, with a savory tang up front and a peppery bite that builds through the middle.
Long and peppery. The sharp finish holds on the back of the palate for a good while, with a lingering salty tang.
Some residual milkiness under the sharpness, but the aging has largely burned off the fresh-cream character.
A savory, browned-butter note through the middle, more umami than sweet hazelnut.
Light savory-earthy undertone, but the profile is more about salt and pepper than mushroom or barnyard.
That piccante bite is the whole point, peppery and sharp on the back of the palate, thanks to the kid rennet doing its work over months of aging.
Natural rind
Natural rind, thin and firm from air-drying and the twine that holds the cheese during aging. Typically trimmed at the counter; not usually eaten.
Provolone Piccante stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The sharpness and salt want a red with structure and a little acidity to cut through, or an amber ale with enough malt to balance the bite.
A drizzle of honey or a spoon of fig jam softens the peppery finish, while pears and figs give the fruit lift that keeps the sharpness from taking over.
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