The Gorgonzola and Toma cheeses: excellent products of Piedmont and Lombardy.

GORGONZOLA

The Gorgonzola is a blue cheese originating from Northern Italy between the Milan, Novara and Pavia provinces.

The legend tells that the discoverer of the renowned cheese was a farmer named Piermarco Bergamo, but this delight became famous only many years later…

It is a raw milk blue cheese and its name is among the prestigious Italian PDO products.

It can be both mild, with a 2 months cheese ripening, and spicy, with a 3 months cheese ripening.

In the Italian cuisine, it can be used to prepare robust and rich dishes, typically with polenta, but it can be also prepared in different ways according to the gourmets’ inspiration. It can be considered a cheese for the whole meal.

Together with a good wine, the classical Gorgonzola has to be tasted with tasty and soft wines, both white and red.
But to taste at best a spicy Gorgonzola, you can try a fortified wine such as a Marsala or a Port.

Another combination can be with beer, for example a good Belgian Abbey beer.

Here in the area it is possible to visit the famous cheese factories where Gorgonzola is produced.

TOMA

The production of the Toma cheese is tightly linked since the Medieval period to the Piedmont area. The shepherds exploited the mountain pastures in summertime and went down to the valley or to the plain during the winter.

From 1996, Toma is a PDO product.

The cylindrical shape is curved at the sides and the most common forms have about 5-10 kg. The cheese paste is uniformly yellow and according to the intensity it can have variations of gradations.

In the Italian cuisine, it is used for different uses, to create all kinds of dishes, from the appetizers to the Toma cheese tastings accompanied with different honeys. Combined with honey and walnuts and a good Piedmont wine.

The Valdossola is maybe the landmark in Italy for the production of Alpine pasture Toma.

From Monscera to Crodo, from Veglia to Bettelmatt.

These cheeses with a secular tradition are kept alive by the history and the strength of people who produce these unique cheeses with commitment.

The flagship is the Bettelmatt raw milk cheese which is produced in 7 Alpine pastures above the Toce waterfall.

Starting from the Morasco Lake above the waterfall it is possible with a 3-4 hours walk to arrive in these pastures with cows, chalets and a lot of silence.

The Alpine production is only made in the months of June, July, August and beginning of September.