Provoleta

Provoleta is an Argentine variant of provolone cheese, described in its source as an Argentine pulled-curd provolone cheese and also sold as Queso Provolone Hilado Argentino. It is typically made in small discs about 10 to 15 centimetres across and 1 to 1.5 centimetres high. The curd is spun so that the cheese is dense enough to hold its shape when cooked. It can be heated on a grill or indoors in a cast-iron pan, and grilled provoleta is often eaten at the start of an asado, the Argentine barbecue, before the grilled meat. For this it is coated with flour, often topped with chilli flakes and oregano, and cooked until part-melted, then usually shared at the table with bread and sometimes seasoned with chimichurri. A stuffed form, provoleta rellena, takes fillings such as ham, sausage, morcilla blood sausage, vegetables, peppers and onions. The cheese grew out of Italian provolone: Natalio Alba, an immigrant to Córdoba from Calabria, adapted it in the 1940s into a smaller cheese inspired by provola silana and caciocavallo. Its manufacture entered the Argentine food code in 1955, and its name was trademarked in 1963 and became generic in 2008.