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.

Cheese and Salumi

On Wednesday, Victoria, Shawn, Megan and I had to teach the Mediterranean Food Culture Class. Our topic was Salumi and Formaggio. In order to prepare for the class we met as a group to discuss the topic. Victoria and I created questions based on the readings and Shawn and Megan organized the field work. By 3:00 p.m. we were teaching the class. We started the class with an introduction on salami, asked questions about the reading and then divided into groups to find and taste cheese and salumi. Erica, Nick and I walked by Piazza Erbe until we found a Gastronomia store were we saw different kinds of cheese and salumi. They looked very tasty and I will be going back to get some of those delicious treats.

While doing the reading, I discovered what salumi is. Salumi means fat and meat (usually pork), cured, seasoned and dried or smoked. It is basically deli meat. Apparently, Italy is very famous for its salumi. In addition, I learned some interesting facts about Parmesan cheese. I was really surprise to see how parmesan can change the taste of a meal the way it does. It is really good for athletes because it helps to spur the muscles into a dazzling form. It really surprised me to find out that it has more protein than any other meat and it has less fat than most cheeses. Only 10-15 grams of parmesan are needed to give flavor to a dish. This amount has more protein than a serving of chicken. Parmesan cheese is one of my favorite cheeses; I cannot have pasta without it. Now I understand why.

One night...

One night, maybe a week ago, I was with Sara and Nick and we did not want to cook. It was a hot summer night and we were at the Pan trying to decide what to have for dinner. And then it hit me. Why not have cold cuts? Many times this is my breakfast, dinner or snack, so I thought we would fill ourselves up with it. We bought two types of cheese, one soft and one hard, salami and prosciutto. When we got hot, we cut it all and made the plates look pretty (like afettati misti). To my surprise, the selections were better than expected. Everything was so fresh, so tasty, so delicious! I was even more surprise when I tried the hard cheese. The cheese tasted like a type of cheese that I used to love in Uruguay. In the United States, I went everywhere looking for this cheese and I never found it. In Italy, I buy a random cheese and it happens to be the one that I had been looking for for so long. The soft cheese was ok, but not something that I would go crazy for and would buy on my own. I would just eat it if I had to. As far as the meets, they were so incredible, specially the salami. Its freshness gave it the most amazing taste of all. It was juicy and soft. Again, this was a taste that I had not experienced since I left Uruguay. The prosciutto was a new taste for me, since Italians have a different way of cooking from what I am used to. It was a great flavor and something that I look forward to try again.