I remember the first time I tasted fresh ricotta, the sweet Italian cheese made from re-cooked whey. It was in the early 1970′s at the Paesanella Cheese Factory in Sydney’s western suburbs and was being made at the time by one of Australia’s first fresh cheesemakers Umberto Somma.

A selection of cheeses for the cheese board

At that time he was still working out of a tiny cottage-style factory and producing cheeses Australians had never heard of like bocconcini (“little mouthfuls”), stracchino, and mozzarella. It was Umberto who pioneered the rich luscious dessert cream, mascarpone.
Umberto hailed from a small town outside Naples and started making his cheeses soon after his arrival her in the late 1950′s. He had learnt his skills from his family who made mozzarelle and provole (generally known as “formaggi di pasta filataro”) . Long queues of fellow migrants would queue at the door on a Sunday morning for his cheeses, but it took the rest of us a long time to begin to appreciate them – and to catch up with his artisan skills.
In Australia ‘mozzarelle’ and ‘provole’ were unknown words. In the main the only cheese known in this country was an English style cheddar and a type of blue cheese pretending to be an English Stilton.
It wasn’t until the the early 1980′s that our cheese revolution took place. As Will Studd points out in “Chalk and Cheese”, new cheeses began to appear all over the country around about that time.  Richard Thomas and Laurie Jensen developed the famous creamy blue farmhouse cheese, Gippsland Blue.  Frank Marchand was making smelly guryere at his Heidi farmshouse in northern Tasmania, Herman Schultz began to experiment with traditional white-rind cheeses at Timboon. Bill Kirk put King Island on the map with his cream, George Ronalds and Laurie Jensen began making triple cream cheese at Jindi and at Milawa Richard Thomas and David Brown produced our first washed-rind cheese.
My first taste of the Paesanella ‘ricotta’ left an indelible impression on me – it was so delicate and moist with a clean milky taste.  These days I use it in many ways – in dips and cakes or to accompany fresh or poached fruits (instead of cream),.   It is also very good baked with eggs, olive oil, fresh herbs and parmesan cheese and served with crusty bread.
I find it hard to resist many of the cheeses now being made. It is an exciting time to be a consumer of Australian-made cheeses and it’s hard to know where to start with recommendations – the rich luscious Jindi triple cream leaves me swooning as does the Yarra Valley Persian Feta, a soft marinated cows milk cheese preserved in olive oil, herbs and pink garlic. Both great with crusty bread. Goat’s milk cheeses are another favourite and a Gabrielle Kervella ‘fromage de chevre’ is a must on the cheeseboard.
Australian specialist cheeses also lend themselves to many culinary uses, teaming well with a wide variety of ingredients. Heating cheese gives yet another dimension to its flavour, changes its texture and releases its aromas.