Gustatelo!

I went on a wonderful tour with my mother and nephew to Modena for a personal tour of the Parmigiano factory, COOP Casearia Castelnovese.  Our guide Alessandro was fantastic! He is originally from Tuscany and now does tours called Italian Days of the Parmigiano, aceto balsamico and Parma ham producers as well as doing some wine tastings.  He was a great guide overflowing with information and totally flexible and willing to cater to our desires.  If you would like to see any of these wonderful food related gems of Italy or even just drive around Emilia-Romagna or Tuscany for a cultural tour, give Alessandro a call. www.Italiandays.it

So parmigiano:

There are only 422 Parmigiano reggiano producers in the world, and all of them exist in one of a few towns: Parma, Modena, Reggio Emilia, or Bologna all in Italy, obviously, in the region of Emilia-Romagna. It was first created in the 1800s in the monasteries of Parma.  All Parmigiano produced now is regulated at every level by the Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano and it is created completely by hand and nearly every level.

First the milk: the only milk that is used comes from black and white cows of a specific breed from farms in a 6 km radius. These farms are inspected by the Consorzio, who inspect and regulate every step of Parmigiano production. The milk is delivered two times a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  The morning milk is added to the parmigiano as whole milk, while the afternoon milk is left in large wide vats overnight to separate.  Early the next morning, before the morning milk shipment, the afternoon milk is skimmed of its cream. The cream is sent for use in other products like burro- butter, ricotta, yogurt or other fresh cheeses. The skimmed milk is added to the initial mixture that will become parmigiano. This means that parmigiano is half whole milk and half skim when it is added to the large copper cooking vats. Each vat will create 2 wheels of parmigiano and the COOP turns out about 50 wheels per day. At this point the casero (calf rennet) and starter whey is added and the mixture is heated. It will boil at 32°c for 12 minutes. This cooking initiates the formation of the curds. Then the temperature is raised to 55°c for 20 minutes, and then while the temperature is brought down slowly, the curds are cut into very small pieces. The curds are then allowed to settle to the bottom of the funnel shaped vat and once the curds forma solid pill at the bottom of the vat, they are brought to the top, cut in half and hung in cheesecloth.

The 90 kilos of curds in each vat creates two wheels of cheese.  In the end 1,100 L of milk are used for two 1kg wheel of parmigiano. After some time hanging and draining, the curds are put into the first plastic molds and an ID tag placed on top.

The molds are then wheeled into a 17°c room where they are turned every 2 hours for a whole day.  After 8 hours in this room a plastic stamp is added to the circumference of the wheel that includes the month, year, ID code for the producer (2973), Parmigiano Reggiano, and Consorzio tutela.  After this first day, the wheels are transferred to metal rings and placed in a brine mixture where it remains for approximately 22 days.  There are two baths of brine that hold 500 wheels

each. That way up to 1000 wheels can be soaking in brine at one time. The salt used is from Israel and during the 22-day soak it only penetrates 1 cm in each wheel; during the longer aging period in the vintage room when the salt penetrates the rest of the wheel.  Salt is the only preservative used in

parmigiano.  After the brining, the wheels are places in a warm room 55°c and 80% humidity for 7-8 hours to dry them out a bit. Then it’s off to the vintage room where they will remain for 12-48 months. This is the most important step. The wheels sit on pine shelves from Austria because that type of wood has very few nodes and can assist in the temperature regulation.  The vintage room is kept at around 18.4°c and 77% humidity.  There is also a high-pitched sound played throughout the room, inaudible to humans, that keeps the mice out of the room. The younger wheels are cleaned, brushed and turned every seven days while the older wheels are cleaned and turned every 14-17 days.

After 12 months an expert comes to inspect the wheels for any imperfections.  He or she uses a special hammer to drum all over the wheel, listening for cracks and imperfections.  The wheels are each rated on a scale of 1-3.  A

wheel rated as 1 is the finest product, no imperfections and is branded with the Consorzio seal. The seal is a red hot branding iron with the words” Consorzio Tutela” that fit perfectly in a blank oval left in the side of the wheel specifically for this marking. A wheel rated as 2 is also branded, but the outer rind is carved to create stripes in the rind, indicating it’s second-class.  A wheel rated as 3 is not branded, not allowed to be named or sold as parmigiano reggiano and is stripped of its circumference labeling. Alessandro emphasized that this #3 product cannot be called parmigiano, it is simply called cheese.  This particular producer achieves 95% rating of #1, which they are happy with because as the owner told us, it is a natural process and they would rather have the 5% lower rating and maintain the natural and human imperfections

of this totally hand made process.  Wheels rated as 1 and 2 are also given a second number rating, which is stamped onto the side, this is either the letter S, which indicates the best wheel with no imperfections, or a number starting with 0 indicating the level and number of imperfections including, but not limited to, cracks, discolorations, and dents. The long a wheel is aged, the more lactose it loses and the greater percentage of calcium there is.  That is why parmigiano is the only cheese that is perfectly safe to give to infants of any age and it is the only cheese used by NASA and sent with the astronauts up into space.

After our thorough tour of the factory, we got to taste and buy, of course, and then off to the winery for some wine tasting. What a gorgeous countryside and vineyard and then what a beautiful spread of meats and cheese to go along with our wines! We were at the winery Corte d’Aibo, an all organic vineyard, cantina and Ristorante.  We got a chance to try their bianco, frizzante bianco e rosso.  All of them were very tasty, but the favorite of the crowd was the sparkling white, perhaps because it was a nice and hot and the mid-day sun was beating down on the scenic view of the vineyard.

Then Alessandro brought us to a small Osteria on the hillside overlooking the gorgeous countryside of Emilia-Romagna.  We had a fabulous meal starting with two pastas tortellini con panna and gramigna? con salsiccia.

Both were very delicious, but the star of the meal came next in the form of crescente with a multitude of toppings.  Crescente is a common fried bread in Emilia-Romagna and it is meant to serve as a tortilla or a pita does: a vessel for toppings and stuffings etc.  Our toppings included verdure: cipolle (onions), fungi (mushrooms), olive, sun dried tomatoes, and carciofi (artichoke), then there was a whole new plate of meats including prosciutto and salsiccia, some cheeses: parmigiano and (my favorite) stracchino, and finally some

“sausage pesto” rounded out the spread.  “Sausage pesto” is exactly how it sounds: raw sausage meat with spices like rosemary.  Not surprisingly the pesto was absolutely breathtaking.  I trust raw pig meat it Italy and in the states only if I know exactly where it is coming from. Gustatelo!