Bitto DOP

Bitto DOP

Although it is currently eaten fresh, the Bitto (the name of one of the streams running through the Valtellina) was traditionally a ripened cheese that could resist intact for up to ten years. It is an exclusively alpine pasture cheese (the winter production is called “Valtellina Casera”) but, over the past few years, it has undergone a series of transformations and evolutions in which its taste has often suffered.

Organoleptic characteristics

Aspect and texture

hard, yellow, pinhole paste; slightly convex form (the paste is soft and elastic when fresh).

Taste

intense, rich and dry with faint traces of animals, grass and pleasant undertones of goat cheese

Serving suggestions

Full bodied, aged, red wines. Chestnut honey, blueberry jam. Rye bread, “pizzoccheri” and “sciatt” from the Valtellina (buckwheat Bitto filled pancakes)

Technical characteristics

Milk

full fat, raw cow and goats’ milk

Production method

Alpine pasture

Paste

cooked, pressed

Salting

dry and in brine

Ripening

at least 70 days (fresh); at least six months (aged)

Production period

summer

Fats

45% F-Dm

Weight

8-12 kg

Dimensions

30-50 cm diameter, h. 8-10 cm

Producers

Alpine dairies from the Valtellina

Whole cheese code

1002310

Cutted cheese code

1002311

Source

Type of milk

Buffalo

Cow

Goat

Mixed milk

Sheep

When man discovered how to preserve milk (by coagulating it), history took a precise direction. Amongst the historic cheeses, a place of honour is reserved for those characterised by the granular structure of the paste which lends itself not so much to cutting as to fracturing into delicious flakes and grating. Sumptuous cheeses, respectful of the cycle of two daily milkings - one in the evening and the other in the morning - obtained by combining the two milks which must have different stamps, widespread where the pastureland allows large daily quantities of cow's milk to be obtained. So cheeses from very precise orographic areas of the pianura Padana and the result of rigorous processes for productions that valorise the starting milk. The BuonaSorte Guffanti cheese is an example of this, heir to a solid and recognised tradition in the Lodigiana area to which we wish to give testimony, in an appropriate manner and in observance of up-to-date technical/sanitary dictates. So a cheese that no longer makes a drop, because today it is pressed so as to avoid leaving too many whey residues. A cheese that no longer has greenish notes and nuances in the colour of the paste, because today the resting of the evening milk, destined for skimming, cannot take place in untinned copper basins. Nor does it have a black rind, as this can no longer be treated with the manteca that used to be made of smoky black, cooked linseed oil and rice flour to protect it during rearing. But it is still a great cheese: with a naturally hard and compact rind, protecting the golden yellow interior, slowly maturing, grainy and soft at the same time, very fragrant, with an aromatic flavour with a strong personality, with a great shelf life because it is able to maintain its characteristics unaltered for a long time. Guffanti's choice to promote this cheese fell on a producer from the lower reaches of the River Adda, who uses milk from animals fed with fodder from that area only. One of the customs that has remained unchanged is the jargon of the cheese-makers, who have always called their lots of cheese 'fate' to allude to the obvious fact that there could be better or worse lots due to chance. This is the reason behind the idea of BuonaSorte cheese for cheese lots with good results. The special version produced by Guffanti strictly requests the use of raw milk. An important detail: no lysozyme is used. Happy BuonaSorte Guffanti cheese!!!