Oaxaca cheese (queso Oaxaca, also called quesillo) is a soft, white, semi-hard pasta-filata ("spun-paste") cheese from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, made from cow's milk and wound into a long ribbon that is rolled up into a ball. Mild, milky and faintly salty, it pulls apart into stringy strands like a Mexican mozzarella and melts smoothly, which is why it is the classic cheese for quesadillas.