PIEDMONT CHEESE
Let's get the project started Tasting cheese with the first cheese storyteller, Alice Sattanino, Master Taster Onaf of Until, who tells us i cheeses from Piedmont.
Alice and I met on the occasion of the competition Best taster of the year Onaf 2019 and since then we have always kept in touch through social media.
We asked her what her preferences are for cheeses, and here's what he replied.
– What is the cheese in your area to which you are most attached for sentimental reasons and why?
«My favorite cheese from Piedmont è la take the straw, that is, the straw-colored toma. It's a cow's milk scrape 2-3 etti seasoned in straw, which in a few days becomes soft and creamy like the French cheeses that I love so much.
I am very close to her because we are dear friends of Occelli and every time we see each other he remembers how much I love her and always gives me a couple. It is the affection that that gesture conveys that makes me feel good and makes me love this cheese even more ".
– Which cheese do you prefer to eat "absolute"? And which one do you prefer to use in gastronomic preparations?
«Per the cheese that I prefer to use in the kitchen, I go straight to the cheese that never fails in my fridge, the Taleggio cheese! It is a very versatile cheese, good to eat but excellent ally in recipes, lends itself to being melted, to make very smooth creams, and also for a good cheese soufflé. My daughter loves it on toast and pizza!
Instead how "absolute" cheese I name the Piave aged, another cow's milk cheese, that must have at least 18 mesi di stagionatura, and eaten in flakes like Parmigiano Reggiano. It has the peculiarity of never becoming spicy, not even in the longest seasonings, always remaining sweet and acquiring very intense fruity scents ».
PIEDMONT CHEESE
by Alice Sattanino
Piedmont cheeses are almost impossible to count. This also depends on the physical and cultural proximity to our French cousins. Just think of the French cheese Reblochon, and his lesser known Piedmontese alter ego, originally from the Val di Susa, the Rebluson.
Both names derive from the French "reblocher", that is to say, by the customs of breeders to milk the cows only partially in the presence of the owner, then re-milk them later to make cheese for themselves. Different areas, similar habits. Precisely for this reason to think about PDOs in Piedmont, more than in other regions, it would be decidedly reductive. Our valleys, hills and mountains host dairy animals of all kinds, from the vaccine, all'ovino-hornbeam, to the buffalo up to the donkey too. Not all of them become cheeses, ovviamente, but the internal diversity of our climate and environment allows us to diversify.
Speaking purely of PDO, in Piedmont there are 7 "Piedmontese" e 3 interregional, that I am the Taleggio cheese, the Grana Padano and the Gorgonzola.
The PDOs reflect our great variety, and I'm:
- Good DOP (cow's milk with small additions of sheep's and / or goat's milk)
- Castelmagno DOP (cow milk)
- Murazzano DOP (sheep and cow's milk, max 40%)
- Ossolano PDO (cow milk)
- Raschera dop (cow's milk with small additions of sheep's and / or goat's milk, even if it is almost always found in milk 100% vaccine)
- Robiola di Roccaverano DOP (to be regulated 3 latti: ovine, goat and vaccine, even if we tend to produce without cow's milk)
- Take piemontese DOP (cow milk)
To describe the richness of my Piedmontese table I will tell you about two of these DOP, which have in common the origin from a very small village, but that live two completely opposite market realities, the Castelmagno e la Robiola di Roccaverano.
Castelmagno is a mountain village at the top of the Grana Valley, in the Cuneo area which has about sixty inhabitants. The large town worthy of this closest name is approx 40 minutes by car in the middle of nowhere.
Il Castelmagno DOP falls into the category of natural blue cheeses, and legend has it that Charlemagne was fond of it, and from this derives its name.
The quality of this ancient cheese lies in its history and the very short supply chain to produce it. It is a semi-hard cheese, pressed, with a very particular production technology. Raw milk is brought to a temperature of approx 37-38 gradi, and liquid rennet is added. After coagulation and breaking the curd, let it rest for 35 minuti, then it is collected in a sheet (called "risola"), lightly pressed with your hands and hung for approx 12 hours to drip. After these operations, the mass is deposited in a wooden container and left to rest for 2 a 5 giorni. Later it is scrambled, pressed others 10 minutes and finally placed in the molds where it is pressed with a press for 1-3 giorni. Salting is carried out dry on the forms, once the shapes are freed from the molds, during approx 48 ore. Precisely the resetting of the curd causes good molds to be incorporated which then lead to blue-veining. A form of Castelmagno can be blue-veined, but there is no guarantee that it is, since no mold is added, as instead happens for Gorgonzola.
Seasoning is minimal 2 mesi, in natural caves, but it can also come to one year's seasoned forms; the average seasoning that is on sale is around 4/6 mesi.
La Robiola di Roccaverano was born in the homonymous country, Astigiano, on horseback with the province of Alessandria, on the heights which then descend towards Liguria and the sea. Important note this, because the "marin", the brackish air that comes from the sea, it greatly affects the spontaneous herbs that grow here and that goats feed on. The Roccaverano goats, than to be regulated, together with the chamois of the Alps, they are the only ones allowed for the production of milk for robiola. Robiola is a form of cheese typical of our area, also called simply small cheese, because it's a small cheese, di circa 200 grammi, cylindrical in shape, high approx 4/5 cm. The term robiola derives from rubeolus, that is "reddish" for the color that these cheeses once assumed externally.
It is a soft cheese, with acid-rennet coagulation, which means raw milk, added with natural graft, it is left to acidify. During the operation, a very small dose of calf rennet is added (rennet coagulation), after which the mixture stops until acid coagulation (lactic) reached. The curd is ready to bleed in 24-36 ore, after which it is placed, without any break, in fuscelle, that promote bleeding and forming.
The salting is dry, and the seasoning goes from a minimum of 4 a circa 12-15 days for the refined product.
Piedmont has a lot to offer in terms of cheese, I certainly cannot say that I gave a complete idea, but I hope I made someone want to try our cheeses, to taste them and learn more.
Castelmagno is a noble cheese and is relatively simple to find in well-stocked cheese shops, it is a valuable and expensive cheese, also for its production methodology.
Robiola di Roccaverano is almost impossible to find outside the regional borders, excluding Milan where we know practically everything is found!
But if we want to find a positive side in this quarantine, know that the Robiola di Roccaverano consortium has activated itself to ship throughout Italy, directly to consumers, so it could be a good opportunity to try a hidden pearl of Piedmont.
Consortium of producers of Robiola di Roccaverano DOP
http://www.robioladiroccaverano.com/produttori.html
Alice Sattanino's blog, All the cheese minute by minute