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)

Eros Buratti and the art of preservation of milk

Upon exit from the shop and checking the receipt, R and i commented that the bill, after all, was less than what we expected, given the amount and quality of the purchases.
"Over here, it's well-spent!" whispered a girl with Indian or Pakistani features just moments before, with the knowing tone of one who probably

La Casera cheese shelf

is a regular customer of La Casera herself. She was responding to my witty jest that emphasized worry for an expensive bill, humor that i thought appropriate to the friendly climate of the shop.

Besides cheese and cured meats, the shop also has a little section for salt. While Eros, the storekeeper, passionately described to us the experience of tasting salt from various origins, i was thinking to the contradiction between the criteria of ecologic shopping and the purchase of a can of salt coming from Himalaya, rather than South Africa. But, come on! When will it ever happen again to be able to compare salt from Ibiza with the Hawaiian one? And so we added those two containers to our shopping bag.
I am quite ignorant in this matter. Up until now, to me salt was just salt. NaCl. It's not that sodium chloride could ever have different organoleptic peculiarities if it comes from South American mines instead of Sicilian saltworks. Eros told me that the differences in taste are not given by the chemical substance itself, but by its impurities that every kind of salt has.

Could be...
Anyway i was already fully satisfied by the more interesting subject of cheese. "Taste this last, please" goes Eros, handing me a teaspoon with some fresh goat cheese.
Delicious! so much that i asked him to add some of it to the basket. In the mean time R was involved by a woman (Eros' mother?) in buying an exquisite slice of Matera bread, displayed on a counter at the end of the shop.
Fortunately these last two purchases were made at the end, after a list of items that were already carefully prepared before, selecting from the products listed on La Casera's website. It's really difficult, in fact, to choose real-time among hundreds of available cheeses (mainly from Piedmont, but also from other Italian regions, and some foreign ones).

Cheese!

The fresh goat cheese, together with a slice of pecorino siciliano ai pistacchi di Bronte (a token gift for the large purchase) were the worthy completion of our shopping list that included three cow milk cheeses (Toma del Maccagn, Raschera semistagionata, Tella Alto Adige), one sheep (Canestrato di Castel del Monte) and one goat (Ubriaco al Traminer). Any choice we inquired about was followed by a qualified comment from Eros.
As a choice criterium we took into account the difficulty of being able to find those cheeses (a more famous pecorino di Pienza, for example, is easy to find also in the regular shopping centers).

"You're in the right place" answered Eros, amused, showing up from the back-shop when, to break the ice, right in front of the display shelves, i said "Goodmorning, by chance do you have cheese over here?"
A moment before, in front of the shop window, i dwelt upon the thought of the many surprising forms developed in the centuries of the need to preserve the milk nutritive properties.

Indeed we were really in the right place.

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In the picture of the cheese plate, starting from the yellow one on the top, clockwise: Bagoss (cow milk, Lombardy), Ubriaco al Traminer (goat, Veneto), Canestrato di Castel del Monte - presidio SlowFood (sheep, Abruzzo), Pecorino siciliano DOP ai pistacchi di Bronte (sheep, Sicily), Toma del Maccagn - presidio SlowFood (cow, Piedmont), goat fresh cheese (Piedmont), Graukase (cow, Alto Adige), Vezzena - presidio SlowFood (cow, Trentino), Raschera semistagionata DOP (cow, Piedmont). In the center, Tella Alto Adige (cow).
Bagoss was bought in a grocery shop, Graukase and Vezzena at the Christmas markets in Merano (Trentino Alto Adige), the others are all from Eros' shop.

La Casera
Piazza Ranzoni, 19
28921 Verbania Intra
http://www.formaggidieros.it

Ten perfect matches

Maurice's and Laura's blogs made my mouth water. So, even if i was not explicitly invited, i go on participating to the meme titled "Ten perfect matches", that is the list of ten perfect gastronomical pairing.

I decided to choose pairings that do not require any cooking preparation, but are served in their simplicity, so that the tastiness is not hidden by the skill of the chef. No offense so to my favorite cheff (my wife), if i don't include in this list any plate she made.
The theory wants that pairing foods one promotes the choice within the same territory, and i think that this is a good way. Nevertheless in this list there are matches of products coming from far apart... they look anyway to me perfect.

There are my ten choices.

1. Spicey gorgonzola with grapes ambrosia (a kind of syrup) and Passito from Pantelleria Salvatore Murana.
2. Tuscan bread with some extra virgin olive oil and some grain of coarse salt with Chianti Classico.
3. Walnut bread with Chevre and a glass of Alsacian Gewürztraminer.
4. 99% fondant Lindt chocolate with Barolo Chinato.
5. A slice of toasted wholemeal bread with parcially melted Brie, a slice of Speck Alto Adige and a Chimay White Cap.
6. Slice of Munster with cumin seeds and Bonne Esperance beer.
7. Raw breton oyster with Guinness just tapped off (with also the clover drawn on the foam).
8. Pienza Pecorino aged in walnut leaves with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Marina Cvetic.
9. Bruschetta (toasted bread) with melted Bagoss and a slice of Colonnata Lard with Masi Campofiorin.
10. Tuna sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi and a glass of Greco di Tufo Feudi di San Gregorio.
11. Epoisses spread on still warmish baguette with Chateauneuf du Pape.

Oops... i listed eleven. I should delete one, but i cannot decide which one... well... i'd better stop thinking, otherwise i will end up adding some more.

There we are. Now i should "pass" the meme to other people. I virtually pass to anyone stop by reading this blog. If you accept it, please link this blog and put a comment, so i link yours back and we don't break the chain.

Here the friends that cought the ball:
Mistral