Bitto

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Bitto is a raw-milk PDO cheese from the alpine pastures of Sondrio in Lombardy, made only between 1 June and 30 September from cow's milk, sometimes with up to 10 percent goat's milk. Young wheels taste mild and sweet, and some are aged for years.

Distretto Agroalimentare di Qualità della Valtellina / CC BY-SA 4.0

Key Facts

Country of Origin	Italy
Specific Origin	Province of Sondrio, Lombardy, including neighboring upland pastures of Lecco and Bergamo
Protection	PDO (1996)
Milk Type	Cow's milk primarily, with non-mandatory addition of raw goat’s milk up to 10%
Milk Treatment	Raw
Fat Content	34 ± 3 percent of the cheese mass; at least 45 percent in dry matter when ripe
Moisture Content	About 38 percent after 70 days of ripening
Rind	Smooth, 2 to 4 mm thick, straw-yellow turning brownish yellow with age
Texture	Fine-grained, sometimes with very few small holes; hard cheese from one year
Flavor	Mild and sweet when young, stronger and spicier with age
Colors	White to ivory to straw-yellow paste depending on ripeness
Forms	Traditionally shaped in concave cylindrical molds, either dry-salted or immersed in salty solutions
Age	Minimum of 70 days
Rennet Type	Calf rennet

What is Bitto Cheese?

Bitto takes its name from a mountain stream that feeds the Adda. Herders made it up on the pastures in stone shelters called calèec, roofed with nothing but a linen tarp, and the original production area covered only the villages of Gerola Alta and Albaredo per San Marco. Wheels ripened first in cellars on the alp, then went down to the valley at the end of summer, where many stayed for several years. Keeping cheese that long was the only way farmers could carry the nutrients of summer milk into winter.

The European Union protected the name in 1996. Bitto may be made across the whole province of Sondrio, on listed mountain pastures of eight municipalities in the province of Bergamo, and on the Varrone, Artino and Lareggio pastures of Introbio and Premana in the province of Lecco. Production runs from 1 June to 30 September, from raw milk of regional cow breeds that graze on the alp with little supplementary feed. A group of alpine cheesemakers around the Passo San Marco rejected the enlarged area and the softened rules, left the consortium, and sold their own cheese as Bitto storico. After heavy fines they renamed it, and since 1 September 2016 it goes by Storico ribelle.

Uncooled raw milk is warmed in a copper kettle over an open wood fire. Rennet goes in at 35 to 39 degrees C (95 to 102 F) and the milk sets in roughly half an hour. The curd is cut to grains the size of rice, heated to 48 to 52 degrees C (118 to 126 F) and stirred at that temperature for 15 to 30 minutes. It is pressed in wooden molds for 10 to 24 hours, drained a further 24 to 48 hours, then dry-salted on the surface repeatedly over the next 8 to 25 days. Ripening lasts at least 70 days, and the rind is turned, cleaned and scraped again and again. Traditionally it can run past ten years.

Wheels are 30 to 50 cm (12 to 20 in) across and 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5 in) high, weigh 8 to 25 kg (18 to 55 lb), and have a characteristic concave rim. The paste is fine-grained, sometimes with a few small holes, and shades from white through ivory to straw yellow as the cheese ripens. The rind is smooth and 2 to 4 mm thick, moving from straw yellow to brownish yellow. Young Bitto tastes mild and sweet. Older wheels, and those made with goat's milk, pick up light nut and caramel notes and grow sharper and more pungent.

Valtellina cooks use it in pizzoccheri, the local buckwheat pasta served with vegetables, potatoes and regional cheese, and in sciatt, fried buckwheat fritters stuffed with cheese.