Strachitunt PDO

Strachitunt is a blue cheese: in fact, the molds that run through it are also this beautiful color.
It is the ancestor of gorgonzola and falls into the stracchino family; raw paste, it is made from whole raw cow’s milk from two milkings, and is aged for a minimum of 75 days.
Processing involves piercing the rind of the cheese to let in oxygen and allow molds to develop; this gives the characteristic blue-green stripes-that’s why it is called a blue-veined cheese (a term derived from erborin, “parsley” in Lombard dialect).
Strachitunt follows a strict production specification in order to have the P.D.O. label: milk must come from cattle raised on farms in the production area and belong to Alpine Brown cows for at least 90 percent of the total; cows must be raised on grass and hay for 65 percent of the total, with 90 percent coming from the Strachitunt area.
The use of corn silage and total or partial skimming is prohibited.

It is an experience not to be missed to enjoy Strachitunt au naturel. In the kitchen it is an ingredient in risottos, crepes, ravioli filling, sauce for meats and of chissöl, the cheese-filled polenta ball. The rind has a reddish-yellow color; it is wrinkled and dry with puncture marks. The flavor of Strachitunt varies depending on its maturity: the longer it is aged, the more you will feel a slight bitter aftertaste, much appreciated by blue cheese connoisseurs. With short aging, on the other hand, the sweet taste of the paste is predominant and makes the product very delicate. Smell and aroma will remind you of cooked milk, butter, mushrooms with high olfactory taste persistence.

Strachitunt’s journey is also symbolic.
Over the centuries it has made a remarkable social ascent: from being a cheese “made with leftovers” and consumed in the households of cheesemakers, to a rare, prized and highly sought-after cheese because it is good.
In fact, it was born so as not to waste the scraps from the processing of stracchino: when there was too little curd to make a whole wheel, it was left hanging in a cloth cloth, waiting for the next curd.
A five-layer form was then made up, alternating fresh curd with curds from the day before, expertly crumbled and then placed in round fascere, so as to keep the “two-paste” production distinct and recognizable from those of the single-paste square stracchinis.
That is why it is called strachitunt i.e. “round stracchino.”