Ossolano Cheese
Production and quality features
Ossolano cheese is a fat or medium fat mountain cheese, a half-cooked and hard cheese which is exclusively produced in the territory of the five Ossola Mountain Communities (Valle Ossola, Valle Antigorio, Divedro, Formazza, Valle Antrona, Valle Anzasca and Valle Vigezzo) with cow's milk. Both in the mountain cheese factories and in the dairies in the valley, the milk of one or two milkings - usually whole or semi-skimmed milk - is used. After a minimum seasoning of 60 days, cylindrical rounds of cheese are obtained, with plain sides where the quality and origin brands are placed. It presents the characteristic thin and widespread holes, an elastic and smooth cheese rind, a compact texture with a color varying from white to slightly straw-yellow. The taste is delicate and sweet, characterized by the fragrances and aromas of the fine herbs of the pastures and meadows of Ossola. The cheese whole has a medium weight of 5-7 kg and a diameter of about 29-32 cm, with variations due to particular processing. Ossola milk, which is almost exclusively produced with Brown breed cows, is an ideal milk for the production of such a fine cheese.
Ossolano cheese at table
Like for other kinds of cheese, the qualities of Ossolano can be best appreciated at least after 60 days of careful seasoning. It is a delicate and tasty cheese which can become a real course during the lunch as a second dish, maybe a little non-conformist, but with an ancient, wise, and recognized tradition. It is advisable to eat it at a room temperature, alone or with white bread or better with rye-bread. If can also be melt and then eaten with potatoes, polenta, toasts, or cooked in important dishes such as pasta, rice, and above all with the so-called gnocchi Ossolani. You can also appreciate it with fresh or cooked vegetables, above all as far as the cheese with a longer maturation is concerned. It enhances and gets enhanced by red noble wines such as Barbera, Dolcetti, Merlot or Chianti, Barolo and Barbaresco together with all the DOC Novaresi which have Nebbiolo as a base. When it is green, you can also taste it with white wines enhancing its delicate aromatic balance.
