The Incredible Biodiversity of Cheese

SAN FRANCISCO - Sept. 11, 2015 - PRLog -- Milk, rennet and salt: all cheeses are made from just these three ingredients. Yet, there are over 2.000 different traditional cheeses in the world that reflect the diversity of the land, the grazing, the type of milk, the breeds and animal feed, the shepherds and the different production technique used by cheese makers.
One of the best places where cheese lovers can get in touch with these diversity is the Slow Food Cheese Pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan, where many cheeses from all over the world are available for tasting.
Every week, in rotation, you can taste a selection of four types of raw milk cheese:
- a great Italian cheese known in the world (for instance Parmesan, Fontina, Buffalo mozzarella, Pecorino...);
- two cheeses representing a specific territory;
- a European cheese.
The four cheeses are proposed in a round wooden box that visitors can take home (along with a wine glass), as a reminder of the tasting. On the whole, 84 types of cheeses are being presented. But let's see some of them.

Gorgonzola DOP
Gorgonzola is produced in many provinces of Lombardy. This blue cheese have a cylindrical shape with flat sides weighing about 200 oz. The minimum aging period is 60 days, but for the spicy type (Gorgonzola Piccante) it can last up to 100 days. Greenish-white streaks characterize the white paste of the cheese.

Taleggio DOP and Quartirolo DOP
Quartirolo and Taleggio have very ancient origins (around the tenth century), and belong to the "Stracchino family", as the milk used for their production was obtained from transumant cow herds after a whole day walking. The term in the local dialect for "tired" is stracche, from which the name Stracchino.
Both are soft table cheeses: the Taleggio is produced exclusively with whole cow's milk, and Quartirolo with semi-skimmed milk; both have a quadrangular parallelepiped shape with flat sides. The average weight of a form is between 60 and 77 oz. The seasoning varies from 5 to 30 days for Quartirolo, while it lasts a minimum of 35 days in the case of Taleggio.

Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse
The king of Italian cheeses, Parmigiano, is a fat hard cheese, with a long slow aging period. It is produced with cow's milk from cows whose diet consists mainly of fodder from its area of origin. Cylindrical in shape, with flat sides and slightly raised edge, it is used as is or grated on many dishes.
In particular, the Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse is made from the milk of the Vacche Rosse breed which presents distinctive qualitative and organoleptic characteristics compared to traditional Parmigiano cheese. The Vacche Rosse cows have very ancient origins, since they arrived in Italy with the Lombards during the eleventh century.

Formaggio di Fossa DOP
Seasoned in holes dug in sandstone rock, this special cheese can be made from cow's milk or sheep's milk (or from a mix of the two) and its typical smell contains the rich aromas of the undergrowth. In fact, the cheese is wrapped in canvas bags and aged in holes from a minimum of 80 to a maximum of 100 days.

Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find these cheeses in traditional food shops. And it's such a pity not to taste them at least one in life! So, what if you cannot fly to Italy to taste these genuine products? Don't worry: Italy flies to you. Sensibus.com is an online gourmet food store aware of the importance of food biodiversity. That's why its cheese catalog (www.sensibus.com/cheeses) contains an incredible variety of first quality dairy products from all over the world. Sensibus gives great importance to origin of each single item, of the stories which lie behind the final product, of the incredible know-how which allows for such delicious food.
That's the added value you can find at www.sensibus.com.