Azienda Agricola Ceccato

At the Azienda Agricola Ceccato Umberto, typical cheeses from Grappa are produced, such as morlacco, bastardo del grappa, as well as caciotta and ricotta. These cheeses are derived from the transformation of milk from Burlina cows, native to Veneto. Until 1930, it was one of the most common dairy breeds in the farms of the Asiago Plateau, the Berici Hills, the Lessini Mountains, and Monte Grappa. Today, only a few hundred heads are registered. The "Progetto Burbacco" was born a few years ago, a supply chain project aimed at safeguarding the breed precisely through the production and sale of typical Grappa cheeses. Umberto, with his local production, is also a promoter of the protection of this breed.

Azienda Agricola Ceccato Umberto: the territory and its cheeses

The pastures of Grappa, rich in diverse natural environments and a rich and varied flora, produce extraordinary milk. The Slow Food Presidium aims to recover this high-quality production by identifying Morlacco as a cow's milk cheese produced in the area of the Grappa plateau since the 1600s. Shepherds and lumberjacks, who settled on Grappa during the Republic of Venice, prepared it with cow's milk; it was soft, lean, and raw-milk. It ages from a minimum of 15 days to a maximum of two to three months. In the past, the milk was completely skimmed, and the fat was used to make butter, which was sold in the plain: with the leftover, a "poor" cheese was produced, which was the staple food of the herders. The milk used to come from Burlina cows, the only native bovine breed in Veneto now at serious risk of extinction. Small, with a black and white coat, rustic and suitable for the lean pastures of Grappa, they produced good milk but in limited quantities, not comparable to today’s production of Holsteins or Brown Alpines.
As the season progressed, from Morlacco, the Bastardo was produced, a hybrid inspired by Asiago d’Allevo or Montasio.
The Bastardo is a more aged cheese: a semi-fat cheese that is more suitable for aging: a minimum of four months. It is also produced with the milk from Burlina cows. It is called "Bastardo" also because sometimes, in the milk used for its production, a component of goat milk was added. When fresh, it has a compact texture, an intense aroma, and a sweet flavor, while with aging, the texture becomes crumblier, spicier, and more savory.

Azienda Agricola Ceccato Umberto: the safeguarding of the Burlina cow

Since the 1930s, the Burlina Cows that grazed on the Prealps of Veneto between Monte Grappa, the Plateau of the Seven Municipalities, and the Lessini Mountains began to be replaced by Alpine Browns because the latter produced a greater quantity of milk. The Burlina Cows, whose origin seems to be Northern European, are currently only a few hundred due in part to the events of World War I, which contracted their numbers from then on. The Slow Food Foundation has included this rustic animal in its Ark of Taste, with the aim of preserving its memory and existence.
Within such projects, it has been decided to safeguard this breed by trying to increase its numbers, but also to produce typical cheeses such as Morlacco and Bastardo from Monte Grappa, using only the milk of the Burlina.
The Morlacco and Bastardo cheeses from Grappa produced with quality single-breed milk are the result of projects like "Burbacco", in which they have attached themselves to a controlled and certified production supply chain and a cheese traceability manual has been created, indicating the requirements it must meet.

The Azienda Agricola Ceccato Umberto contributes by making its products available online, thus offering many the opportunity to appreciate not only the taste but also the entire historical and preservation baggage of a cheese that wants to continue to exist and assert itself with its increasingly genuine and authentic characteristics of the Grappa territory and its cows.