In this installment
Piave Vecchio Cheese
Cave Aged Taleggio Cheese
Aged Gorgonzola Naturale Cheese
Piave Vecchio Cheese
This rarely tasted traditional cheese made high in the mountains of northern Italy has been one of my favorite eating cheeses for years. In truth, I’ve always been reluctant to reveal it for fear that already limited supplies will become even more difficult to get.
What’s so great about it? It’s simply one of the tastiest, most versatile cheeses I’ve ever tried. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who doesn’t like it. After aging for half a year or more, its flavors are accessible enough to entice a cheese novice yet more than complex enough to compel cheese fanatics to come back for more.
Flavor wise, think of a good Parmigiano Reggiano, with a little kick of sweet mountain Gruyére. It’s excellent on polenta or in risotto. It brings the smoothness of cheddar, the texture of Parmigiano-Reggiano and the mellowness of sweet mountain butter to your table.
Cave Aged Taleggio Cheese
Our wheels of taleggio are made in the tiny mountain village of Berghera di Taleggio. If you drive the one lane road up the Val Taleggio about two hours from Bergamo, itself about 30 miles northeast of Milan, you’d probably fall off the mountain before you ran into Signore Amgroggio. He’s been there a long time, but his operation is tiny. His family has been making cheese since 1924.
One of the most significant aspects of this cheese is that it’s real Taleggio. It’s got that rich, flavorful kick. There are a lot of cheeses made to look like Taleggio, but they’re often not aged as long, nor are they aged in caves. The cave is the key. It doesn’t have to spend a long time in the cave, in fact only about two months. Some firms snatch the Taleggio from the cave after just a month, imagining that the cheese will ripen well on the trucks and boats that get it to its destination. It will ripen. But not well. You need the cave to give Taleggio its trademark flavor. Aging outside the cave tends to make it bitter.
I love Taleggio’s pasty, dense texture…it slowly melts as you push it warmly against the roof of your mouth. The smack of salt subsides and then waves of competing flavors rush to take its place. Traditionally, it’s not used in much cooking, but a couple slices would top a bowl of polenta or risotto very well.
Aged Gorgonzola Naturale Cheese
Next to Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola is Italy’s other most well known cheese. And not without good reason. When it’s good — like this — it’s one of the most luscious cheeses around.
Traditional Gorgonzola is made just east of Milan, in the northern area of Italy called Lombardy. There, in the town of Gorgonzola, herds of cows rested during their autumn treks from their summer alpine pastures to their lower winter grazing grounds. That meant each fall the people in this little town were flooded with more milk than they could possibly drink. To make use of the surplus they did what almost every other traditional European culture did: they began making cheese. Eventually the cheese made in the fall took on the name of the town where it was made.
Traditional Gorgonzola is made in two styles: Dolce and Naturale. Dolce is the younger version, Naturale is the matured version. We prefer Gorgonzola Naturale for its wonderfully intense flavors.