We sampled three cheeses from Providence, Rhode Island's Narragansett Creamery:
- Benevento Basket Cheese
- Queso Blanco
- Atwell's Gold
All three of them came from The Market at the Pinehills in Plymouth.
The Benevento Basket Cheese is a fresh cheese of a firm type that you sometimes see in Portuguese markets. It is a seasonal cheese, special for Easter. It is often combined with different herb medleys or with honey and spices; it is something of a blank canvas on which you can get creative. We tasted it plain and with a little salt to get an idea for what we would do with it, then had no trouble finding inspiration. It is a fine product, tastier than the kind we have had from Portugal.
Richmond and Annette gave the Queso Blanco Best of Show, because it far exceeded expectations. Queso Blanco is another fresh cheese, but it is often rubbery and blandly salty, the kind of cheese to make you want to drink more Vinho Verde. It is used on tacos and in burritos. The Narragansett Queso Blanco was tasty and delicate without being very flavorful, and the texture was far superior to the mass-produced rubbery varieties. I want to try it in a hot skillet.
Lorna and I liked the Atwell's Gold the best. It had a complex nutty flavor that was very fine. We would have that with a nice bottle of wine.
Narragansett also makes excellent ricotta, and their Diviine Providence is an excellent and nuanced gouda-style cheese. Their cheeses are often available at farmer's markets and other good markets along the South Coast of Massachusetts and in their native Rhode Island.