Montasio.

Montasio takes its name from Monte Montasio and its high plateau in the Julian and Carnian Alps, where Benedictine monks at the abbey of Moggio Udinese are credited with refining the cheese from the 13th century. It's a cooked, pressed cow's-milk DOP made only in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the neighbouring provinces of eastern Veneto, from milk that's raw or thermised but never pasteurised — a "soft" technology, in the Consorzio's words, that keeps the native microflora alive.

Aged a minimum of 60 days, it moves through named stages: Fresco (about 60–120 days), mild and elastic; Mezzano/Semistagionato, fuller and rounder; Stagionato (10–18 months), firm and piquant; and Stravecchio (18 months and beyond). It's the cheese for frico — the Friulian pan-crisp, whether the pure-cheese croccante or the potato-enriched morbido — and a fine table cheese at every age.