La Casara

By far, the best food experience I had as far as cheeses and salumi go, took place in Italy. La Casara is a cheese farm located outside of Verona. In this farm I learned how cheese is made. It is so amazing to see how actual people work with their own hand, with almost no machinery. The staff grabbed the cheese with their own bare hand and molded it into containers to give it shape. It was something amazing. I am so used to seeing everything mechanized that when I saw all the artisanal products I almost have a heart attack. On top of that, the owner of the farm gave us a tour of the place which was magnificent. He taught us about cheese and how the different types of cheeses differ and why. The younger the cheese the softer it is. We tried four types of cheese, from young to old (softer to hardest). The soft cheeses were the ones that I liked the most. The most amazing cheese in my opinion was the Monte Veronese, a local cheese from Verona. It was soft and very smooth, incredible! He also told us that it is better if the milk comes from cows from high mountains because the cows were healthier up there. One of the reasons was the pure air and the fact that they were fed with grass instead of livestock.

The other thing that this farm produced was salami and sausage. La Casara uses pigs that are fed with the left over cheese which makes them very healthy. In addition, they use the best parts of the pig (butt, shoulder and ribs I believe) for the salami, which is not a common practice. We had a taste of this salami. What an incredible salami that was! It melted in my mouth! So smooth, so tender, so delicate…I want more!!!! It was accompanied by a type of hard bread, which also delicious. Best salami I ever had. I would have loved to try the sausage, but we did not have enough time.

In addition to all this amazing food, the owner was a member of the slow food movement. This means that part of his believes is to pass on his knowledge of cheese to others, which is exactly what he is doing, and very good I might say. He is also helping promote locally grown products and trying to help others create their own little cheese farms. It is an amazing work the one that this man is doing. Congratulations! I look forward to keep on trying these types of aperitivi, and who knows, one day I might be able to go back to La Casara.