If you're a cheese lover, listen up. We're bringing you a selection of the best cheese dishes from around the world.
Honestly, you can rate and rank anything by popularity, even super specific dishes. The Taste Atlas site regularly brings rankings of the best foods from different parts of the world. They even compared those with cheese as the main ingredient. The Czech fried cheese got a mention, but it's not doing as well as we might have expected.
10. Tirokafteri
This creamy Greek dip is usually made with a mix of feta cheese, milk or yogurt, spicy peppers, garlic, and olive oil. Although it's a traditional dish, regional influences might add anything from roasted red peppers to other kinds of cheese. It's typically served with warm pita bread.
9. Fondue jurassienne
Originally invented as a practical way to use up old cheese and bread, it's now a sought-after delicacy. The star here is Comté cheese, a staple in Jura and Franche-Comté cuisine. It starts by heating highly acidic white wine in a pan or pot, which is then mixed with Comté cheese and cornstarch until thoroughly combined with the wine.
Then, the mix is enhanced with kirsch liqueur, salt, and pepper, transferred to a warm fondue pot rubbed with garlic, ready for serving with crispy bread and crudités.
8. Banitsa sas sirene
This Bulgarian cheese pie is a main variant of the traditional banitsa pie. It's made by layering buttery filo dough sheets with a mix of eggs, yogurt, and cheese like sirene or feta. Traditionally made and served at Christmas and New Year but now available year-round in Bulgaria at grocery stores, street vendors, kiosks—basically everywhere. Other savory or sweet banitsas filled with different veggies and fruits exist too.
7. Khachapuri
This simple cheese bread is Georgia’s most iconic food. Traditionally served with melted cheese, eggs, and butter. There are different types of khachapuri and although new cheeses like mozzarella and feta are being added lately, the traditional Georgian sulguni or Imeretian cheese is still the norm.
The bread comes in different shapes depending on the baking method. Two common types include the circular Imeretian khachapuri and the open version, Adjarian khachapuri, topped with butter and a raw egg.
6. Shahi paneer
Shahi paneer hails from the Indian Mughlai cuisine. It’s a cheese curry made from paneer, onions, cashews, and a rich, spicy tomato-cream sauce. Typically served with Indian breads like naan, roti, or puri. Often called royal paneer, it’s traditionally made during special occasions and celebrations as a vegetarian main dish. It’s usually garnished with coriander leaves.
5. Focaccia di Recco col formaggio
This delicious cheese-stuffed focaccia comes from Recco, the culinary capital of Liguria, where you’ll find it in bakeries, pizzerias, and restaurants. Legend says it was invented in the 12th century, when Recco locals made it for crusaders with whatever ingredients they had: flour, water, olive oil, and some cheese.
Unlike most other flatbreads, this focaccia is made without yeast and has a thin, hand-pulled crust filled with soft cow’s milk cheese from the alpine pastures called stracchino or crescenza. By the late 19th century, Focaccia di Recco was traditionally associated with All Saints’ celebrations but now is made and consumed all year round.
4. Sirnica
Sirnica is a savory Bosnian pie made from phyllo dough filled with a mixture of fresh cow's cheese, sour cream, and eggs. Thin dough slices, locally called jufka, are spread with the cheese mixture, and the whole pie is traditionally rolled into a spiral. Before serving, sirnica is sometimes sprinkled with water, oil, or milk. Though it can be enjoyed on its own, this savory pie is often served with yogurt or sour cream.
3. Provoleta
In Argentina, provoleta is usually served as a starter. It's a staple of Argentine-style grilling known as asado. Semi-hard provolone is the ideal grilling cheese because it’s compact and firm.
For asado, it’s sliced about 2.5 centimeters thick, heavily seasoned with oregano, maybe topped with dried red chili flakes, and grilled until it starts to melt in the center. According to Taste Atlas, provoleta tastes best with garlic chimichurri and crispy bread as sides.
2. Ajaruli khachapuri
Yep, khachapuri made a second appearance in the Taste Atlas ranking. Clearly, it's super popular. Adjarian khachapuri is one of the favorite variations of this snack. It's an open pie filled with a combo of cheese and eggs. The base is a yeast dough rolled into an oval and traditionally filled with sulguni or Imeretian cheese, or a mix of both.
The preparation is finished with an egg placed on top, then baked until the egg is slightly firm. This boat-shaped pie comes from the coastal region of Adjara and is traditionally finished with a pat of butter on top.
1. Saganaki
And the winner is... Greece! Saganaki is a super popular Greek appetizer where various veggies, meats, or seafood like shrimp or mussels are wrapped in cheese and then fried or grilled. The cheese can also be cooked on its own, no extras needed.
While regional variations include formaela cheese in Arachova and halloumi on Cyprus, the typical Greek saganaki usually uses graviera, kefalograviera, kasseri, kefalotyri, sheep's milk feta, or any other hard cheese that melts well but stays in shape. Sometimes it’s flavored with a splash of traditional Greek spirits like Metaxa brandy or Ouzo, an anise-flavored aperitif.
If you're a fan of Czech fried cheese and wondering why it didn't make the top ten, here's a bummer: it ranked among the top 100 cheese dishes but only managed to snag the 29th spot.
