I first heard of asiago when I was at university. One of my roommates, who was on a perpetual diet, raved about it. She snacked on celery for its fibre. She substituted butter and sugar with plain apple sauce in baked goods because she believed the fruit would give the food moisture and flavour without adding any fat (she was wrong). Her idea of an extravagant dessert was a tablespoonful of ice cream.
For dinner, she would often eat whole-wheat pasta with olive oil, steamed broccoli and a tiny amount of grated asiago. It was one of the few cheeses her many diet books approved of. Her recommendation of the cheese was the very reason I didn't want to even taste it. I figured that if it was dietetic, I wanted nothing to do with it.
There are two types of asiago. One is made in Italy from whole cow's milk, while asiago d'Allevo is produced using skim milk (guess which kind my roommate favoured).
When I eventually tasted asiago d'Allevo, it made me rethink diet food. I know now that just because something is low-fat doesn't mean it's flavourless. In fact, asiago d'Allevo is intensely flavoured - so sharp and strong that my roommate's use of it in small quantities turned out to be smart, because the cheese can overwhelm the palate.
I recently made a delicious version of her dish, although it's not nearly as healthy or austere: whole-wheat pasta tossed with a sauce of melted butter, sauteed garlic, diced pancetta, steamed broccoli, cream and grated asiago d'Allevo.