The longer the cheese ages, the harder, more yellow, and more intensely flavored it becomes. There are three different aging periods for Asiago d'Allevo: Asiago Mezzano (4 to 6 months), Asiago Vecchio (10 to 16 months), and Asiago Stravecchio (15 or more months). The milk is heated, transformed into curd, and pressed into round molds before it is salted and aged. Its cousin, Asiago d'Allevo is produced using raw milk from Pezzata Nera and Bruna Alpina cows that graze in higher pastures and is made from a mixture of whole milk and skim milk. It has a delicate, soft, and sweet taste with the aroma of fresh milk. The resulting cheese is semi-soft, white, or slightly yellowish, with a creamy and smooth texture and large holes. After wrapping and brining, it is left to age for 20 to 40 days. The milk is heated together with enzymes to help it coagulate into a curd that is "pressed" (hence the name pressato) into a mold. wedge Cheese Pecorino Toscano DOP Asiago PDOĪsiago PDO Mark Weinberg/Agrifrom AOP / SopexaĪsiago Pressato, also known as Asiago Fresco or "fresh Asiago," is produced from whole, pasteurized cow's milk from cattle that graze in low-lying areas of the Asiago Plateau (in Vicenza, Trento, and other parts of Padua and Treviso). These cheeses are often used grated over salads, served with figs, and pairs well with red wines like Chianti, Brunello, and Barbera d'Alba. The cheese has some irregular and well-distributed holes and a thin yellow rind that is uniform, smooth, and compact. The cheese is pale straw yellow in color with the distinctive aroma of dried fruit and hay (these notes can be increased by ripening the cheese longer). It can be recognized by its cylindrical shape and by the fire-branded PDO logo on the rind.
With aging, its aroma becomes more intense.ĪGED PECORINO TOSCANO: This semi-hard cheese must be aged for at least 120 days but may be aged for up to a year. Beneath its pale-yellow rind, this excellent cheese has a sweet taste and a milky fragrance when fresh. The milk for this cheese is produced in Grossetto and other areas of Tuscany and at a few neighboring municipalities in Lazio and Umbria.įRESH PECORINO TOSCANO: Pecorino Toscano is produced exclusively with sheep’s milk from pastures in the area of origin (as required by the production regulations). Today, as in the past, this cheese plays a prominent role in the dairy traditions of Tuscany. Pecorino Toscano has a long history that Pliny the Elder mentioned in Naturalis Historia (AD77). Pecorino Toscano DOP Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West Kilian's Cheese Shop Piave Stravecchio Eataly Piave Stravecchio DOP | Eataly | Eataly Pecorino Toscano PDO Piave pairs particularly well with Spumante Garda DOC wines. A popular grating cheese, it becomes more meltable as it ages. Like Parmigiano Reggiano PDO, its flavor changes and intensifies with time, becoming fruitier and richer in taste. An objectively demanding territory to farm. The milk used for the production of Piave PDO comes exclusively from the province of Belluno, in an area bordering the Dolomite Mountains National Park. Piave PDO is produced only in the Province of Belluno in the region of Veneto. At least 80% of the milk is produced by breeds of cattle typical in its production zone: Bruna Italiana (Italian Brown), Pezzata Rossa Italiana (Italian Red Spotted), and Frisona Italiana (Italian Friesian or Holstein). Piave PDO is a hard, cooked-curd cow-milk cheese with a compact texture and an elastic structure that crumbles easily with aging.
Piave PDO 2021 Mark Weinberg/ Agrifrom AOP / Sopexa