the absolute most deliciously flexible cheese ever

a few weeks ago i enjoyed a unique grocery shopping experience with new york city food competition guru, nick suarez, who, between organizing the recent brooklyn beer experiment and his yearly wine and cheese parties, has come a long way from our NYU days of sitting around a dorm room sipping on 40's of Old E. On this fateful day, I, lover of all things involving cheese, asked him to suggest a cheese for me to take home that evening. nick suggested piave, a hard cow's milk cheese from the piave river valley in italy, and backed up his selection with his brother's opinion (a reputable source as a former cheesemonger), stating that it is both affordable and delightfully piquant (nick doesn't really talk like that). what ensued has since changed my life in ways i never knew were possible.

allow me to interject here how i feel about cheese in general. cheese is meant to be eaten at any time of the day possible. for breakfast, have some eggs, and add some queso fresco duh. at lunch, with your avocado sandwich, add some swiss, obviously. as an appetizer while you make dinner, have some chunks of manchego - duh again. and finally, to your spinach dinner salad, add some goddamn goat cheese. that said, please note that all of the above cheese scenarios involve cheeses of a variety of textures and milks. this is where piave comes in.

Piave's flavor profile is intense, yet balanced and dynamic, so that it can be incorporated into absolutely everything at any time of the day and you will not get sick of it. it is hard, but not as hard as parmesan, which requires grating. it is sharp, but not as sharp as a cheddar, which would overpower a salad. simply put, it just makes everything taste better. now i get to tell you about all the ways i have incorporated piave into my life.

1. brunch: eggs. an omelette with spinach and onions, and throw in some piave until it melts into cheesy awesomeness. genius.
2. lunch: salad. arugula, cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced pieces of piave and some miso dressing. holy shit this is addictive.
3. appetizer: wasa cracker with piave and apple slices and dabble on some olive oil and some freshly cracked black pepper. eat it because it's delicious.
4. dinner: sautee some kale, cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms, and sprinkle some bits of piave on top. keep drooling.
5. snack: just eat this shit by itself.

there you have it - solid evidence that this cheese is totally worth your $6 and will inevitably change your life and that of those around you. it will provoke your palate to actually consider eating anchovies someday. it will persuade your lactose-intolerant date to overindulge. it will lead you to challenge bobby flay to some throwdown where you undeniably kick his ass in every way in queens somewhere. you see where i'm going with this. now go get you some piave.