The best Italian cow cheeses

Cheeses made with cow's milk cover the vast majority of the world's dairy production landscape. Dairy cows are of many types but the one that is probably the most important in Italy is the Bruna breed, which was once called Bruna Alpina.

The nutritional characteristics of cow's milk are more or less around these values: water constitutes 87.5% of the milk content; proteins, including the most representative of which is casein, represent 3.5%; same percentage for lipids, which vary depending on whether the milk is skimmed or whole; 5% of the content is composed of sugars, including lactose; the remaining 1% is composed of mineral salts, mainly calcium. The values of Bruna milk are slightly different: in fact, they have more protein, but also more fat

Cow's milk cheese: what does it mean?

nutritional characteristics of cow's milk are around these values: water constitutes 87.5% of the milk content; proteins, including the most representative of which is casein, represent 3.5%; the same percentage for lipids, which vary depending on whether the milk is skimmed or whole; 5% of the content is composed of sugars, including lactose; the remaining 1% is composed of mineral salts, mainly calcium.

The values of Bruna milk are slightly different: in fact, they have more protein, but also more fat. The lipid content may vary, and depending on its percentage we have whole milk between 2% and 4% fat or high quality milk (more than 4%) as it comes out of the cow's udder. In addition, skimming (semi-skimmed, skimmed) are industrial techniques that are applied after milking to reduce

Cow's milk cheeses: which are the most famous

Cow's milk cheeses cover the vast majority of the world's dairy production landscape. Dairy cows are of many types but the one that is probably the most important in Italy is the Bruna breed, once called Bruna Alpina.

On Spaghetti and Mandolin you will find only the best of cow cheeses. For example, Caciocavallo Podolico is a great cow cheese from the southern Italian tradition and in particular from Basilicata and Calabria. Produced with the spinning technique as in mozzarella, these shapes between 1 and 2.5 kg are hung with string on support poles in the cellars for aging, which lasts at least three months. It is part of the foods recognized as Slow Food principals.

Another cheese that you absolutely cannot miss is Blu aged with pomace from Oseleta. It is a cheese made from cow's milk produced in Piedmont and inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti, which gives it the characteristic bluish hue typical of blue. The maturation is done by wrapping the toma with freshly pressed Oseleta grape pomace from Valpolicella Classica. In this cheese we find all the goodness of a tomato of cow's milk that has undergone fermentation in the pure blue style and the fine aging in the pomace of one of the typical grapes of Valpolicella. Oseleta, a small bunch yet so rich in color, tannins, acidity and typical aromas such as spice and cherry, to make it one of the most considered grapes today in great wines such as Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG.

If you want to surprise your friends or relatives who love good cow cheeses with something incredible, we recommend Blu61 and Bagoss di Bagolino.

Blu 61 is an exceptional, award-winning blue cow's milk, made by aging in Raboso passito wine and cranberries. Its paste is creamy, with a diffuse presence of blue veins due to the blueness. It is peculiar for its elegance and harmony: an intense, decisive taste, which is balanced by the vinous, typically sweet scent of Raboso passito.

Bagoss di Bagolino is a typical mountain cheese produced only in 28 small farms within the Bagolino area, in the Brescia mountains. It is a real jewel, yellow like gold: this is because saffron is present inside the pasta. Bagòss is made only with milk from brown cows raised in Bagolino, taken to graze in one of the 22 recognized pastures in the Bagolino area and fed with local hay. The cheese forms of cow's milk are then aged for 36 months. The finished product is a true masterpiece: the crust is oiled, the dough ripens and firm and tends to break into flakes