Friday, May 29, 2009

La Formaggeria


Pagliettina
The word "tourism" recalls, besides a rest at the seaside or in the mountain, visits to museums.
Everywhere one happens to be one can find a museum about a particular subject, with the purpose to atone in a display of cultural engagement, every possible concession to laziness and enjoyment, almost it was about a guilt.
Naturally one cannot generalize, but sometimes really really think a museum is only an excuse to give oneself airs of intellectuality, while it's not really needed.
And maybe it's almost as if one justifies some museums, like for example the

Goat tomino
torture instruments in San Gimignano, just to mention one.
Torture instruments!
Shouldn't one be a kind of maniac to visit such a museum?
And what about some fetishism for the visitor of the museum of Umbrella at Gignese?

It obviously depends on the location of the holiday. I am not saying for sure that the Uffizi wouldn't deserve to be visited if one is in Florence, or the same for the Vatican Museums in Rome, or the Louvre in Paris. But to me, in general, museum is kind of boring, i have to admit in a guilty tone.
In general when we are in holiday we prefer to spend our energies in the methodical research of an authentic osteria, a genuine trattoria, an artisan cheese farm. And so, during our holiday in the Cuneo area some times ago (here the excursions), we ended up shopping at La Formaggeria, in Torre Pellice.
Visiting a shop like that one must conclude that, from the cultural point of view, it's not something really different from a museum. Philosophy of Bruna Magnano, that runs the shop, is to refuse commercial mass products and to offer instead niche quality, linked to the territory, trying to divulge the tradition, preserving it from the homologation imposed by the outside world.

Pecorino in must

Ricotta in hay
I believe that this is the right goal of a museum. The only difference is that a museum reminds me of a "moldy" smell, while La Formaggeria, instead, it welcomes the visitor with an attractive scent.

The counter exposes dozens of cheeses from that area, besides other products: fresh pasta, olive oils, various type of preserves... Among our purchases there are the cheese shown in these photos:
- Pagliettina, smooth cheese of mixed cow, goat and sheep milk, strong and acidulous taste
- Aged Goat Tomino, demi-strong, intense and resolute savour
- Pecorino aged in grape must, demi-strong, resolute notes of flavor coming from the must that colors the surface of the crust
- Ricotta aged in hay, demi-strong, salted, taste and smell of hay

La Formaggeria Di Magnano Bruna
Via Arnaud, 6, 10066 Torre Pellice (TO)

2 comments:

tychecat said...

Unlike a museum, your Formaggeria had better change its exhibits regularly - or it will smell even worse than "museum mold"
;-)

Rowena said...

We've got to check out that other one in Arona. I'm thinking that the cheese aged in goat stomach....hmmm....