Formaggio d'alpe ticinese
Formaggio d'alpe ticinese is a semi-hard raw milk cheese made on the alpine pastures of Ticino, Switzerland, during the summer grazing months. It is known for its brown-grey rind and, in some valleys, a share of goat milk blended into the cow milk.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Switzerland |
| Specific Origin | Ticino, Switzerland |
| Protection | GI (2011) |
| Milk Type | Cow, sometimes with up to 30% goat |
| Milk Treatment | Raw |
| Rind | Natural, washed in brine |
| Texture | Semi-hard |
| Flavor | Mild when young, spicier with age |
| Colors | Brownish grey rind, yellowish paste, paler with goat milk |
| Forms | Wheels of 3 to 10 kg (6.6 to 22 lb), 25 to 30 cm (10 to 12 in) across |
| Age | 60 days to about 1 year |
| Rennet Type | Animal |
| Also Known As | Tessiner Alpkäse |
What is Formaggio d'alpe ticinese Cheese?
Formaggio d'alpe ticinese comes from the alpine pastures of Ticino in southern Switzerland. Ticino alps appear in writing as far back as the 12th century. Travel accounts from the later 1700s describe cheese in the Maggia valley made from a mix of skimmed milk, goat milk and cow milk, and note that the alps of the Leventina turned out better tasting cheese than the Lugano district. Both soft and hard cheeses were made up there then, sold within Ticino and exported to Genoa. The cheese entered the AOP register of protected designations of origin in 2002.
Production runs only during the summer season, roughly May through September, with the milk produced and turned into cheese on the alp itself. Raw milk, lactic acid cultures, rennet, then salt and water for the brine bath and rind care are the only ingredients allowed. Silage feeding is forbidden. The cheesemaker adds the cultures that drive flavor, then rennet at 32 degrees, and the milk sets about half an hour later. The curd is cut to coffee bean size, heated, and pressed for several hours in round molds. Wheels spend one or two days in brine, which builds the rind and deepens the aroma. AOP rules require a copper vat.
Wheels run 3 to 10 kilograms (6.6 to 22 pounds) and measure 25 to 30 centimetres (10 to 12 inches) across. The rind is brown-grey rather than the yellow-red of alpine cheeses north of the Alps. The paste is yellowish, and lighter when goat milk goes in. Cow milk is the rule, but in the Valle Maggia and Val Verzasca up to 30 percent goat milk is blended in. Ripening runs from 60 days to about a year. Short aging gives a mild cheese; longer aging makes it sharper. Each alp tastes slightly different depending on what grows there.
Alpine cheeses like this one are usually sliced and eaten with bread or with boiled potatoes, and they also work fried or in a gratin. Around 380 tonnes were produced in 2006. In German-speaking Switzerland the cheese usually turns up in specialist cheese shops.
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