Grana Padano is a sweet and savory gourmet cheese, the name Grana was popularly bestowed upon the cheese because of its "grainy" consistency which was markedly different from the other cheeses known until then.
Grana Padano was created at the beginning of the millennium by the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle who used ripened cheese as a way of preserving surplus milk. By 1477 it was held to be the most famous cheese of Italy. Grana Padano is produced throughout the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto, and in the provinces of Trento, Bologna, Ferrara, Forlì, Piacenza and Ravenna.
Grana Padano is a cylindrical, cooked hard cheese which is matured slowly. It may be used as a cheese in your buffets, on a sandwich of for grating. A golden oily rind encases a white or straw-colored fine-grained cheese with crumbly fissures radiating outwards from the centre.
The taste is fragrant and delicate, and the gourmet cheese preserves its integrity for one or two years.