Murazzano

Characteristics

Fat cheese with fresh dough produced with ovine milk, sometimes 100%, sometimes less, down to 60%, when mixed with cow’s milk.

Shape and dimensions

Cylindric shape with a diametr of 10-15 cm, 3-4 cm high. One mould weighs 300 to 400 grams. Without rind, white if fresh, sometimes light yellow, if seasoned.

Looks of the dough

Soft, slightly consistent, white if fresh, pale yellow if seasoned.

History

Already Plinio the Old, in his “Naturalis Historia” cited Liguria and Cebano while talking of cheese. Bareris says thet Murazzan is probably the most ancient Italian cheese. A doctor from Vercelli, Pantaleone da Confienza in his “Summa Lacticiniorum”, wrote a full chapter about the “Formaggio della Mora”, described as “cheeses called robiole and are small, produced in the land of the marquises of Monferrato and of Carretto and Ceva”.

Production zone

The Murazzano can be produced in all of the “Comunità montana Alta Langa” authority, and in the towns of Bastia Mondovì, Ceva, Castelnuovo Cea, Clavesana, Montezemolo, Priero and Sale San Giovanni.

Production technique

The milk is curdled at 37°C with liquid rennet.

The mix is broken to the size of hazelnuts and put in cylindric boxes with pierced bottom for at least 24 hours. During the seasoning the cheese is quickly washed every day with tepid water. The seasoning lasts 4 to 10 days.

Taste and smell

The fresh and delicate flavors come from the sweetness of ovine milk; the taste is fine, pleasant, sweet in the fresh moulds, more intense and sometimes hot in the seasoned ones.

How to eat it

Alone or in dishes (Salted cake with Murazzano).

Recommended wines

Langhe Chardonnay, Roero Arneis and Dolcetto di Dogliani.

Denominations

Official classification: Presidential Decree, 16/12/1982.

Denominazione di Origine Protetta: Reg. (CE) n. 1263, 01/07/1996.