I’ve been aware of asiago for a while. It seemed a good if pretty unremarkable cheese that I never really cared about. But suddenly not too long ago it started appearing everywhere. Asiago cheese sticks, asiago bagels, asiago bruchetta, Speciality asiago pizzas, Asiago logs brought to parties.
Where did its popularity come from all the sudden. Did a bunch of people suddenly decide that it’s god’ sift to cheese? Did they figure out how to make it really cheaply? Does anybody out there really love the stuff? Again, it’s not that I don’t like it, so the Asiagoatti can hold their flames and curses, I just prefer something with more flavor, and am wondering why it took over the country all the sudden.
It seems like foods come and go in trends, just like anything else. Where were sundried tomatoes five years ago, for example? Now it seems like chipotle peppers are the next big thing. However, I’ve noticed asiago cheese replacing mozzarella in fried cheese sticks at some restaurants, and the asiago bagels at Panera are just kick-ass.
It’s the asiago cheese equivalent of the milk producers group that promotes the “got milk” campaign. They make sure that companies like chain restaurants get exposed to their product, and give them incentives to use it on their menus.
I don’t know why it’s suddenly so popular, but tell you what - it makes a buttkick toasted cheese sandwich. I had run out of cheddar the other day, so I made one with asiago. Yummm-my!
Asiago virgin here. I don’t eat at restaurants much, and never get fast food, so I’m totally unfamiliar with this taste. So back to the OP: what’s the deal? Is it a strong taste like cheddar? Is it nutty like swiss? I’m doing Atkins - what would be the best way to try this stuff without bagels, bread or crackers?
I would compare it more to Parmesan. It has a strong flavor…see if you can sample a piece at your local deli. I think most places will let you do that, as long as you don’t follow it with fifty more samples.
singular1–it’s more of a topping cheese than a snacking cheese. It’s a dry, hard grating type cheese with a very strong flavor. Good stuff on pasta or baked asparagus.
I think it can either be a dry-hard cheese or a softer wetter cheese. The cheese sticks and log I’ve had certainly didn’t come from anything with a Parmesan texture. When it is a hard cheese replacing Parmesan it has a kind of nutty flavor but just doesn’t have the depth of flavor of the Parm* and when it is a softer cheese replacing Mozzarella it just doesn’t have the yummy creamyness of the Mozz.
*It’s possible I’ve never had any particularly good Asiago, because the very smelly and very strong flavor coments are not the same as my experience with it.
I think most Italians would disagree. Hard cheeses such as Parmesan are eaten by themselves, shaved thinly. Grating them onto pasta and other dishes is not that common there. However, for Americans, that would be a common usage.
A cooking book we have describes asagio as “parmesan on steroids.” That basically says it all. It is everything parm. is only more so. So anything you would do with parm. you can do with it.
My suggestion would be to use it as a seasoning to spice up your meat dishes.
Maybe get some procutto and a chicken breast and some asagio. Cut the breast as for cordan bleu then stuff in the rest. sear it to lock in the juices and then bake it with some garlic butter.