Stracchino is a soft, creamy, rindless beauty of a cheese. Its life is short – it's meant to be eaten within a week or two – but it sure burns bright. Its delicate, fresh flavor is full of milky tanginess, and its creamy texture makes it perfectly spreadable. Originating in northern Italy, stracchino (pronounced stra-key-noh) derives from the Italian word "stracca", meaning "tired" – it was first made with the ultra-rich, pasture-infused milk of weary cows descending from Alpine pastures as autumn fell.
Here in Wisconsin, we produce our own version of this ultra-creamy cheese year-round. We love to spread it, melt it, and layer it in oven-baked pasta dishes. When you've got stracchino cheese on hand, you'll always have a burst of creamy freshness to add to any dish.
Take a peek at our website to learn more about stracchino and other fresh cheeses made right here in Wisconsin. Search our index for recipes or for ideas for a great cheese basket. Or scroll down for tips on pairing stracchino cheese with food and beverages.
We think stracchino is perfect with a little olive oil and a loaf of crusty Italian bread. If you want to make a meal of it, add some cured meats, briny olives, and tomatoes. Stracchino spreads beautifully on crostini and adds creamy tang to any pasta recipe. You can also use it on pizza in place of fresh mozzarella or add it to an instant pot mac and cheese recipe for the most creamy mac and cheese you'll find this side of Italy.
As an ultra-mild cheese, stracchino makes a great merlot, beaujolais, or riesling pairing if you're drinking wine. For beers, try a pilsner, pale ale, or a light hard cider.
Stracchino is a fresh, rindless cheese made from whole cow's milk. This delicate cheese has a milky flavor with a pleasant tang and a soft, buttery, tender texture. As a fresh cheese, it's meant to be eaten within a few days or weeks.
Stracchino is made with whole cow's milk. After the curd is separated with rennet, it's broken up into pieces the size of walnuts and poured into cheese molds where it matures for 3 to 4 hours in humid conditions so a rind cannot form on the curd. After the cheese has dried a bit and achieved a perfect balance of acidity, the molds are submerged in a brining solution for a couple of hours to cool down the cheese and let it absorb some salt. The cheese is then aged for up to a week until it is dry enough to package.
Burrata is another delicate, fresh, Italian cheese made with an outer shell of mozzarella and a creamy interior of mozzarella curd and fresh cream.
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Stracchino may originate in Italy, but today it calls Wisconsin home. As a fresh cheese, stracchino would never survive the trip across the pond from Italy. Knowing how good this cheese can be, our cheesemakers in Wisconsin took it upon themselves to re-create this classic recipe and provide Americans with a Wisconsin-made version of this Italian beauty.
It's just one more example of how cheesemakers in Wisconsin take old-world recipes, then tweak and perfect them to produce the world's tastiest, highest-quality cheese. Our 1,200 cheesemakers sure know how to make cheese. They produce more than 600+ styles, varieties, and flavors cheese – more than anywhere else on the planet. And they've won more than 5,500 awards for their efforts – more than any other country in the world.
So, next time you're ready to try some of the freshest, creamiest stracchino cheese in the world, you'll know exactly who to thank.
Craving award-winning aged cheddar, pining for parmesan, or searching for a new cheese to try? The world’s best cheese is just a click away! Explore our directory of Wisconsin cheesemakers and retailers who offer online cheese shopping and get cheese shipped right to your door. What are you waiting for?
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