Italian cheese used for sauces or gratins. Q, R

Firm, creamy-white, (sometimes) smoked cheese.

Perhaps the most characteristic cheese of the South; made in a process similar to scamorza, but formed into any number of different shapes, including long, fat sausages, little pigs, melons, and pears. Provolone dolce, the mildest version, is aged for up to a year, provolone affumicato is lightly smoked for about a week, then aged for a further three months.