The cooperative dairies of Trentino
Mountain art, culture, nature and literature
Cheesemakers are artists in their own right. If you don’t believe it, try tasting the same cheese made with the same milk but by different hands. We don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but if the opportunity presents itself, do not pass up the experience: the result will amaze you.
As far as we are concerned, experience alone is not enough, it takes talent. It takes talent to interpret the raw ingredient, milk, in the environment where it is produced, an environment that has its own history and mythology, and to experiment by leveraging passion and undying curiosity.
The cheeses of our dairies are made by cheesemakers who give life to products of the best possible quality, all year round.
Of course, they are helped by milk produced locally, valley after valley, by native cattle breeds, who feed on mountain pastures or on hay from pristine fields, as dictated by the Memorandum of Understanding of the Autonomous Province of Trento, whose aim is to safeguard the environment and healthy raw ingredients by constant monitoring and analyses.
A cheese produced in this way is a reflection of its territory.
So, come along to discover our valleys through some of our Cooperative dairies. Each plant has many stories to share with you, but we encourage you to discover the history of their stories: of the oldest cheese of their production.
Puzzone di Moena DOP – Caseificio di Predazzo e Moena
Puzzone di Moena or Spetz Tzaorì in Ladin, is the valley cheese. In the post-WWII years, the farmers of Fassa used to bring milk to the factory for cheesemakers to process. At the end of the month, each farmer took home their share of cheese to let it age in the cellar. Puzzone di Moena is a cheese with a moist rind and an intense flavour, that ages from 90 days to 10 months. Perfect with polenta, in risottos or simply enjoyed by the bite accompanied by a good glass of strictly Trentino red.
Cher de Fascia – Caseificio Val di Fassa
As the name implies, this cheese embodies the essence of its valley: raw milk coming only from Val di Fassa farmers, which preserves all the flavour and quality of herbs and flowers growing at the foot of the Dolomites. This too is a washed-rind cheese with an intense and bold flavour, aged from as little as 60 days and as much as 9 months. It is worth trying all of its variants: from the one made exclusively with mountain pasture milk, to the one aged with Teroldego wine and the newest version aged with white wine vinegar, and whose name, Vajolet, echoes the famous Dolomite peaks. To be enjoyed together with steaming polenta or boiled potatoes, or au naturel, simply by the bite.
Nostrano di Primiero – Caseificio di Primiero
Whether fresh or aged, this is a semi-hard and semi-cooked cheese whose colour, light or straw yellow, depends on the length of ageing, and on the flavour that changes with the seasons. At various times of the year, depending on the diet of the cows, the milk will take on the scents of fresh grass and flowers, dry hay or a mix of both. Even when it is more aged, its distinctive spiciness is well balanced by the milk’s creamier and sweeter taste.
Casolet – Caseificio di Terzolas
It is the homemade cheese par excellence, a constant presence on the Val di Sole tables in the winter months. Indeed, it used to be made in autumn, when the cows returned from the mountain pastures and produced little milk because of their increasingly poor diet and decreasing milking. It is a deliciously delicate and creamy cheese that goes well with any dish, and, in the valley, even on pizza with apples. Buy as many wheels as you can; they are small and are consumed even faster than bread.
Vezzena – Caseificio del Vezzena
On the Folgaria, Lavarone and Luserna plateaus, 13 breeders who raise their cows on mountain pastures and feed them first- and second-cut hay in the colder months, continue to make an ancient cheese, born even before the sixteenth century. This cheese is available in different aged variants, has a straw colour and an intense and spicy flavour, and is best paired with first courses and polenta. Cheese of choice for soups and dumplings, even grated.
Trentingrana di Alpeggio – Caseificio di Sabbionara
It is the grana cheese that the whole world is familiar with and loves, made exclusively with mountain and pasture milk. It has been in production since 1925, thanks to a Val di Non cheesemaker who had returned to this region after a few months working in the Mantua area. The Trentingrana denomination and a Consortium that brings together all the dairies that produce it, including the jewel of Sabbionara, were born in 1973. The milk comes from native cows such as the Bruna Alpina, the Frisona and the Grigio Alpina, which during the summer live in mountain pastures. The result is a grana cheese with a distinctive herbaceous taste and caramel notes. A Slow Food Presidium cheese.
Caprino – Caseificio di Cavalese
A white cheese with compact texture and a rich and full-bodied taste, made exclusively with goat’s milk. Val di Fiemme is one of the few valleys in Trentino to have preserved its goat breeding tradition, and, in particular, of the so-called Alpine stock breeds, which are particularly robust and have adapted to the mountain environment and climate. Do not miss tastings offered on the Desmontegada de le Caore, held in Cavalese in the month of September, when the goats, along with their breeders, return from the mountain pastures and fill up the village streets. But the Cheese factory is open at any other time of the year, continuing to carry the tradition forward.
