A guide to Albanian cheeses — from gjizë to djathë i bardhë

Ask for cheese in Albania and you rarely get a single answer. Dairy sits at the centre of the table here, the legacy of a country where sheep and goats have grazed the highlands for millennia and where the family cow still supplies the neighbourhood. The range is wider than the ubiquitous white block suggests — learn four or five names and you can eat well from breakfast to dessert.

Djathë i bardhë — the everyday backbone

The white, brine-cured cheese known as djathë i bardhë is the one you meet everywhere: crumbled over salads, baked into pastries, set beside bread and olives at breakfast. Feta-like but with its own character, it ranges from mild and milky to sharp and salty depending on whether it is made from cow, sheep or a blend. Sheep's-milk versions from the mountains carry the most depth.

Gjizë — the soft, sweet one

Gjizë is the fresh whey cheese, soft and faintly sweet, close to ricotta. It is the soul of byrek me gjizë, the coiled cheese pastry, and turns up in fillings, on bread with honey, or simply eaten with a spoon. Fresh from a mountain dairy, it is a different food entirely to the supermarket tub.

Kaçkavall and the aged mountain cheeses

For depth, look to kaçkavall, the semi-hard, pulled-curd yellow cheese aged into something firm and nutty. The southern highlands around Gjirokastër and the northern mountains produce prized versions; aged wheels of djathë i thatë (dried cheese) can be grated like a hard Italian cheese over pasta and jufka.

How to buy and eat it

Buy at markets and roadside dairies, where a wedge cut from a fresh round beats anything shrink-wrapped. Cheese anchors fërgesë, the baked pepper-and-cheese dish, pairs with a glass of raki or a rough country red, and is the natural partner to petulla, warm fried dough. When in doubt, order a plate of mixed local cheese and let the region introduce itself.