Smooth and lightly smokey, scamorza melted over a ripe tomato atop a sweet, chewy crumpet. Sometimes in summer I just can’t face another salad.

And thankfully a slice of Massimo’s scamorza, pronounced sca-MORT-za and a saucy crumpet lift this grilled cheese on toast out of the prosaic.

Scamorza is an Italian-style pasta fillata, or stretched curd cheese. Cousin to mozarella and provolone, the curds are heated and stretched giving pasta filata cheeses a pliable texture that holds together when grilled.

Made the same way as mozarella, scamorza is salted, aged and sometimes smoked giving it a a thin edible rind.

This scamorza was made by Massimo‘s, an Auckland-based cheese company. Massimo came to New Zealand and was amazed at the lack of fresh mozarella in a country with such great dairy, Three years and an apprenticeship later he came back and is producing delicious Italian-style cheeses.

Caciocavallo is another of Massimo’s cheeses. Meaning “cheese on horseback,” it’s shaped like a gourd, bound with rope and slung over a wooden board to drain and age. Older than scamorza it takes on fruity, more complex flavours.

Both these cheeses are great grilled on toast, with good bread, a little sweetness from caramelised onions or a summer tomato and narry a salad green in sight.