CHEESE FROM OSSOLA

Dairy goods were first produced in the Ossola mountain region before the year 1000, according to a document from that period describing the cheese production work of a mountaineer and his family. The morphology of this territory has always prepared the land and pastures to produce large quantities of good grazing grass. Ossolano DOP cheese is a product of the Ossola flatlands and the Valleys Antrona, Anzasca, Divedro, Antigorio, Formazza and Vigezzo. This thick elastic cheese has small irregular holes, and its colour varies from pale to intense yellow depending on the stage of ripeness. Its delicate, harmonious flavour is linked to the seasonal plants that the cows eat, and it becomes more intense and fragrant as it ages. Ossola also offers the Bettelmatt PAT, an excellent cheese made in limited quantities because it is produced during the summer in only seven alpine locations high in the Antigorio and Formazza Valleys. These are the only places where a very rare type of grass grows, called "mottolina", which gives the milk its particular aroma. This cheese is soft, compact and golden or pale yellow in colour, with different sized holes. Bettelmatt is truly unique, considered to be one of the most extraordinary cheeses from the Alps.