Tales of the Italian food and wine | Lombardia – Liguria – Emilia Romagna

Three regions including the whole Italian landscape: from the Alps to the sea in a nutshell.

LOMBARDIA – LIGURIA – EMILIA ROMAGNA

WHY IS PASTURE CHEESE SO SPECIAL?

It must be clean air. It must be the grass that is always fresh with a thousand colors and scents. It must be the tranquillity that grazing animals enjoy. It must be the combination of all these peculiarities that make mountain pasture cheeses so fragrant, healthy and tasty. Mountain milk is different: animals are free to move around the meadows and choose to eat only the most captivating flowers, the greenest grass, the most aromatic shrubs. Animals are healthy, and their well-being is ensured. This is the simple secret of pasture cheese, a raw material of the highest quality. And then, the ability of the cheesemaker. The experience and ability of those who process the milk are an essential part of the cheese production. Here, in Val Camonica, in the Alps of upper Lombardy, in the San Faustino Dairy, magic dairy products are created with the creativity and skills of the cheesemakers. Goat and cow cheeses, mostly made from raw milk, taste like real gifts from heaven. Cheese aged in pomace, tome di malga, fresh or seasoned robioline, and a fantastic goat blue cheese (creamy like gorgonzola) are just some of the products, sons of the Alps, which can be tasted by some lucky cheese lovers.

ACETO BALSAMICO TRADIZIONALE: IT IS STILL MADE AS IT WAS IN THE PAST

Once considered an authentic medicine due to its aromatic properties and the benefits that it was able to bring to the body, Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena DOP is still made as it was one thousand years ago. To help you better understand how much work and how much patience are needed to produce a bottle of authentic Balsamic Vinegar, we would like to introduce you to Acetaia Rubini. Not far from the centre of Modena, the Rubini farm has its own Lambrusco and Trebbiano vineyards, which give the grapes to be turned into Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale, as required by the protocol (the permitted vines are only the native ones of Modena, such as Lambrusco and Trebbiano, or Spergola and Berzemino). After the cooking of the must up to a concentration of 30%-50%, the aging phase begins, which takes place rigorously in barrels made of different woods with different sizes (from 75/100 litres up to the smallest ones of about 10 litres). Each wood represents a fundamental step for Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale: the chestnut, with its tannins, contributes to the dark colour, the mulberry concentrates the product giving the vinegar its typical density; the juniper gives resinous essences; the cherry sweetens the flavour; and the oak, in the last phase, yields the characteristic vanilla aroma. Acetaia Rubini produces both types of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale of Modena DOP: “refined”, aged for a minimum of 12 years, and “extra-aged”, refined for at least 25 years. In any case, producers can extend refinement even beyond 25 years. For this reason, the Rubini family has a peculiar tradition: upon the birth of a new member of the family, the aging of a new Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale begins. Searching in their vinegar cellar, you may come across small barrels of vinegar with over 70 years of ageing!

In the last summer issue, we will travel along the Adriatic coast to reach the heel of Italy: there we will discover Molise with its gastronomic tradition, little known but with so rich in products, the splendid Puglia, land of sun and Primitivo wine, and Basilicata, with many recipes that will make you love southern Italy even more.