Official website for tourism in the Aosta Valley
Directly from mountain milk, a rich variety of flavors and textures.
Not only Fontina and Fromadzo cheeses (both with PDO - protected designation of origin) are produced in the Aosta Valley, but also numerous other types of cheese and dairy derivatives. Among the Agri-food Products of the Territory (PAT) you will find the "Toma di Gressoney".
To find out more about dairy production and agricultural traditions:
Cream made from whey, used to make a very low-calorie butter
In the past, the combination of polenta and Brossa was a typical meal for mountain pasture shepherds, because it was highly nourishing and rich in calories, which provided the energy required for a hard day's work. Today, it is considered a pure delicacy, which can be enjoyed in country guesthouses or local restaurants offering typical menus from Aosta Valley cuisine.
Brossa is a ‘cream’ made from heated whey, to which vinegar (or something just as sour), thus allowing the fat and small quantities of protein to rise to the surface. Brossa is also used to make fine butter, which contains fewer calories than butter made with cream.
A versatile staple ingredient in traditional Valle d'Aosta cuisine
Butter from Valle d'Aosta is made in the mountain pastures and co-operative dairy farms situated throughout the region and it has always played a fundamental role in traditional food. Its unmistakable taste preserves the aromas and flavours of Alpine pastures.
In winter, the dairymen produce the finest cream-based butter, rich and creamy, ideal with polenta, chestnuts or sweet raspberry jelly; to prepare it, milk is left to rest in cold water for at least 12 hours, allowing the cream to rise to the surface spontaneously and then be removed and poured into the butter churn, the tool used to make butter.
During the summer months, instead, brossa butter is made on the high mountain pastures, which is extracted from the cauldron and placed in tub, where it is left to decant and mature for approximately 24 hours ;it is then introduced in a butter churn and a little water is added: the churning process lasts approximately 40 minutes, until the butter granules are the size of a grain of wheat.
In the past, to guarantee better preservation of butter, farmers melted it, filtered it and placed it in glass or terracotta containers, giving rise to the local beuro colo’. This typical food from Valle d'Aosta, an ideal breakfast for children and sportsmen, is rich in vitamin A and mineral salts.
POD stamp for the Aosta Valley queen of cheeses
Fontina is a cheese that brings together all the exclusive aspects of unpasteurized and whole milk and its manufacture; it has a compact, thin, brown crust, inside of which is a semi-cooked, elastic and soft paste with a few small holes. The cheese is a pale yellow colour if produced in winter, when the cows are fed hay, and becomes a deeper yellow if produced during the summer. It has a sweet taste and its fragrant aroma intensifies as it matures.
This cheese has a high energy value, being rich in phosphorus, calcium and vitamins A and B: it is a whole, genuine and digestible food.
Its production is controlled by a rigid discipline which defines it: "a fatty cheese with a semi-cooked paste, produced with whole milk from the Val d’Aosta breed of cows (red-brindle, black-brindle, chestnut), obtained in one milking".
In 1996, Fontina gained the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) stamp from the European Union, which unequivocally decrees that it must be produced exclusively in the Aosta Valley region, a region with particular geographical, pedological, climatic, agronomic and cultural conditions, thus protecting it from attempts at imitation.
When it is fully matured, the Fontina DOP Consortium of Producers and Protection proceeds with stamping: the authenticity and quality of wheels bearing this stamp are guaranteed.
The Fontina POD wheel has an average weight of around 9 kg and is aged for a minimum of 80 days.
It can be sold whole, cut or packaged: in the latter case, the operation must be carried out only in the production area and is controlled and certified.
On the market you can also find the long-matured version and the one produced in mountain pastures.
The "Fontina DOP long seasoning" is aged in caves for a minimum of 180 days during which the flavors are enhanced giving the Fontina a more intense and aromatic flavour. The wheels have a brown rind tending towards dark, an intense yellow paste, soft and melting, on the palate it has more intense and persistent aromatic vegetal and lactic notes.
"Fontina DOP Alpeggio" is produced from June to September in the mountain pastures of the Aosta Valley up to 2,700 meters above sea level, where Aosta Valley cows graze freely, feeding on fresh herbs and mountain flowers. The freshly milked milk is transformed directly on site, in the mountain pasture dairies, to maintain its unique organoleptic characteristics deriving from the high mountain flora unaltered. The wheels have a light brown rind, the paste has an intense straw yellow colour, due precisely to the feeding of the cows, and is soft and melting. On the palate it is particularly sweet and aromatic thanks to the hints of fresh grass and mountain flowers which are added to the lactic hints typical of Fontina DOP.
Lots of working processes for a POD cheese
The Vallée d’Aoste Fromadzo is a POD cheese prepared with cow's milk taken from two milking sessions,to which small quantities of goat's milk may be added. Its cylindrical shape and straw colour with reddish hues encapsulates a compact paste, with a few small and medium-sized holes ; the maturing process takes place in cellars or caves with a high humidity (60-70%), at a temperature of 10/15°C, for a period ranging from 60 days to 14 months.
It has a semi-sweet flavour when fresh, and a stronger, slightly salty flavour, sometimes a little spicy when it is more mature. Regulations allow its production in several types: half-fat, half-fat with added herbs (juniper, wild cumin, etc.), low-fat, mixed cow's-goat's milk.
Thanks to its etymological roots, which make it highly representative of the production area (Valle d’Aosta, in fact), the Vallée d’Aoste Fromadzo was added to the register of European POD cheeses.
Two peculiar working processes for goat's cheeses
In the Aosta Valley, the production of cheeses made from goat's milk is limited and very few dairy farms deal in marketing them. At the Aosta Valley agri-food product markets it is however possible to find stands of goat's cheeses of different types and with a very high level of quality.
Two types are worked: soft paste and pressed paste; the preparation process of the soft paste cheese sees the milk, following coagulation and subsequent break-up into small granules, being placed into the moulds without being pressed and left to mature in places which are high in humidity.
The preparation process of the pressed paste cheese is different, in that the milk is heated slightly first and, following coagulation and subsequent breaking up of the curds, again before being placed in the moulds,salted and turned over several times during the maturing process. This makes for a tasty cheese with a very particular flavour. Goat's milk, which has always been appreciated in the traditions of Valle d'Aosta, was often used by women to wean babies.
Furthermore, due to the anti-waste customs that distinguish the rural economy, it is also possible to find mixed cheeses produced with milk mixtures: goat-cow, sheep-goat or sheep-cow.
A savoury locally produced table cheese
The Gressoney toma cheese is a highly regarded table cheese, which is worked directly on the mountain pastures of the Lys valley using traditional methods.
Every year, no more than 1000-1500 medium-sized cheeses (4/5 kg) are made, and they are then left to mature on wooden planks in cellars or caves, for a period ranging from two to four months.
It is a half-fat cheese, prepared using semi-skimmed cow's milk; the skimming is achieved via surfacing, i.e.: the milk milked in the evening is left to rest in copper containers until the following morning, thus allowing the fattiest part, the cream, to rise to the surface andbe removed with a large wooden spoon. The remaining milk is used to prepare this delicious cheese with a compact paste and savoury flavour.
Tough cows and special pastures for a wholesome ingredient
Milk, a wholesome and essential food for man, is especially fine when made with mountain cows. Milk produced in the Aosta Valley, despite being highly appreciated raw, is prevalently used for making famous local cheeses.
Obtained from local breeds, such as the dappled red Valdostana, an animal with excellent motor skills and unrivalled resistance to pathologies, has a characteristic flavour and precious nutritional qualities, which vary depending on the season: richer and higher in fat in summer, when the cows chew fresh grass and scented flowers from high mountain pastures, and lower in fat in winter, since they feed on dry forage.
Aosta Valley milk, bottled fresh, is marketed by the Centrale Laitière d’Aoste and in the different dairy farms distributed throughout the region. You can also find fresh milk at some producers who have set up vending machines to serve customers.
A delicate cheese, with an intense scent of fresh milk
White, soft and creamy, reblec is a small, fresh cheese, made with cream which rises spontaneously to the surface, to which raw whole milk is added.
The mixture is heated to 38-39 °C and then left to curdle. After being cut and placed in the moulds, the product is left to dry in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours.
Reblec is mainly reserved for family consumption. It makes an excellent dessert, topped with sugar or ground cinnamon and for the sweet-toothed with a generous helping of cocoa powder.
The aroma of original ricotta cheese as a pleasant starter
Salignön (or salignoùn) is a ricotta cheese with a creamy fat texture and a spicy hot flavour, obtained from the whey left over when making cheese enriched with milk or cream. Mixed with salt, pepper and chilli pepper (which gives it its pinkish hue), it is further seasoned with mountain herbs (cumin, juniper, etc.)..
Once upon a time, its short maturing process took place near the fireplace so as to convey a slightly smoked flavour to the product.
It is found more frequently in the municipalities of the lower Aosta Valley.
Salignön is a true delicacy, but it is not easy to find: you can only purchase it in a limited number of shops and some dairy farms. Unlike other cheeses, usually eaten at the end of a meal, Salignön is served at the table mostly as a starter or used as a filling for the typical local “miasse” (thin and crunchy rectangles of corn flour).
A cheese with ancient origins for pleasant consumption
Seras is the last cheese obtained in the cheese making chain using whole milk, following the production of Fontina or Toma. It is a premium ricotta, pale in colour and with a slightly acid and savoury flavour.
It has very old origins, so much so that its name is mentioned in manuscripts and documents dating back to 1268: in fact, it would appear that the dairymen of that time produced it for the noble families who lived in the castles of the Valle d'Aosta.
It is eaten mostly fresh, sliced into portions and accompanied with polenta or with boiled potatoes, or seasoned with oil and pepper and eaten with wholemeal bread. Seras is mixed with garlic, oil, salt, chilli pepper, juniper, fennel and cumin to make Salignon.
