Parmesan Cheese

 

I almost gave up on visiting a Parmesan cheese producer because nobody responded to my request to visit them. But luckily one producer near Parma got back to us! The producer is called Ciaolatte and it’s a small family-run business. They have their own farm to collect fresh organic milk.

When we arrived at their facility, Alex greeted and took us to the production area. He introduced us to his brother and cousin who are in charge of the production.

Each batch makes only 2 wheels. And depending on the amount of milk they collect each day, they make either 3 or 4 batches. So, only 6 to 8 wheels a day….. Once the milk is in the kettle, it’s heated to around 27 C and rennet is added. Their rennet is animal-based (which is more traditional). Then, they let it sit for a while. Once they confirm the right degree of coagulation by inserting their hand, they then proceed to mix it using an interesting shaped stirrer.

They then heat up the mixture again, to around 40 C and let it sit for about an hour until all the curd sinks at the bottom. The curd is scooped out with cheesecloth attached to wooden sticks, very skillfully. Voila!!

After cutting in half, the curd is pushed into a mold to remove the excess moisture by leaving a weight on top. Then, the wheel is soaked in the salted water. The rest is taken care of in the aging room. Periodically, a cheese master from the parmesan cheese consortium visit their facility and evaluates the cheese to determine whether it can be certified as DOP. Unlike other cheese, the cheese master can't take a sample to taste because that would ruin the quality of the cheese. Instead, he taps the wheel and evaluates it by sound. Alex told me, it is not unusual for a certain number of wheels to be disqualified for the DOP certification. The master will discard the disqualified cheese wheel right then…..

The longer the cheese is aged, the more glutamic acid (Umami) produced. Then  the glutamic acid gets crystalized. The cheese on the left in this picture is 36 month aged and the right is 24 month. The white spots are crystalized glutamic acid (natural MSG!)

We tasted 12 month, 24 month and 36 month aged parmesans. 12 month was very good but 36 month was just amazing. Some of the 36 month aged parmesan I’ve tasted creates unwanted bitterness but this didn’t. It had a very intense umami!! They sell their cheese on site. 500g (a bit over 1 lb) is only 9.50 Euro. I wanted to bring back the whole wheel to the US. But it’s physically impossible and also I guess it’s illegal…. I bought a smallest cut (which is 500g) and shared with my classmates at the cooking school.

We came back to our hotel a bit before noon. Because today’s cooking class starts from 3:00pm, we decided to have a light lunch near the hotel. It’s a pizzeria with some seafood dishes, called Ristorante Pizzeria Rococo. It’s off the city center so that all the other customers looked local.

The clams were tasty but a bit too salty. The pizza is grana cheese, arugula and prosciutto. The crust wasn’t as crispy as the one I had a couple of days before, but the flavor was very nice.

 

Today’s menu at the school was all seafood. Pan fried anchovy, pasta with squid and cherry tomato, salmon fillet and a dessert with ricotta cheese and walnut. 

Anchovy

This anchovy is not the one already filleted and salted with olive oil. These were fresh whole fishes. My classmate (the only classmate of the day because it was just two of us) hand filleted the anchovies by removing the guts with his finger and peeling off the bones by pulling the heads. I guess I should have done this. He looked really disgusted by the smell of the fish….

The filleted anchovy was lightly dredged in flour and quickly pan fried, served with sliced Gala apple (which is local to the area) and Sorrento lemon (which is used to make limoncello).  My classmate couldn’t finish this dish. I guess hand filleting anchovies traumatized him…..   

Squid pasta

Of course we made fresh pasta again. I believe it was tagliatelle (there are too many names for pasta to remember…). This is the third time I made pasta here in Bologna and I’m already getting used to making fresh pasta! It was prepared with chopped onion, garlic and fresh cherry tomatoes. Chef Giampiero kept saying not to burn the garlic because the bitterness of garlic is the worst. And he picked out the garlic (whole clove) rather quickly. I asked him that if the amount of garlic used is different between northern and southern Italy. He said Southern Italians would use more garlic. But it’s funny, he is originally from southern Italy, Calabria (which is at the toe of the boot). Probably he is trying to stick with the northern Italian style?

The cherry tomato used to make the sauce was very sweet. But the skin was very tough. The squid looked like a slightly smaller cuttlefish. It was cut into small pieces. I was surprised that Chef Giampiero started to cook the squid from the beginning. I thought the squid would be rubbery if we cooked it for  a long time. He said he would get more flavor then, though.

The squid was very tough as I expected. But the flavor was very nice. The tomato sauce was amazingly sweet!

 

Salmon steak

One thing I noticed in Bologna is that they don’t sear food as much as Americans would. The chef started cooking the salmon from low – medium heat and kept in the pan for a long time.

And no salt and pepper before cooking. Two different chefs told me that the salt would suck up the moisture and make the protein tough. So, they sprinkle salt after proteins are cooked. I see the point. But unless you are good at sprinkling salt evenly, the saltiness may taste uneven….. I like to add salt at different stages of cooking little by little to even out  the saltiness, though. Anyway, it’s very interesting to find differences in cooking style in different cultures.

The side salad was just arugula, tossed with olive oil and salt (no acid). The sauce on the side is deglazed from the pan used to cook the salmon

Dessert

This is the chef’s creation. It’s kind of ricotta cheese panna cotta. But it’s much heavier than regular panna cotta. Ricotta cheese was mixed with chopped walnuts and then toughened by gelatin. It was served with a blackberry sauce.

 

Somehow, the portions of each of the dishes was way too much today. So, I couldn’t finish the last two plates. My stomach needs some rest……