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Montasio Cheese
Yozh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Montasio is a mountain cheese from northeastern Italy, with a PDO designation. It has a firm texture and can vary in flavor from mild and milky in younger cheeses to richer and more robust in aged varieties. Montasio is often enjoyed grated over pasta and risotto or sliced in sandwiches.
What is Montasio Cheese?
Montasio is an ancient cheese from the Alpine region in northeastern Italy. Made from cow’s milk, it gets its name from the Montasio Massif in the Julian Alps. This cheese has a long history, dating back about a thousand years to mountain huts and the Benedictine monastery of Moggio Udinese. The first written records of Montasio appear in 1775 from San Daniele del Friuli.
Montasio cheese has been protected by various designations since 1955. It received its Italian DO in 1986 and its European PDO in 1996. The Montasio consortium, founded in 1984, includes 1,300 certified farms, 43 creameries, and 17 agers.
The production zone covers the regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and parts of Veneto. Montasio follows an 18th-century recipe. The cheese wheels are 3 inches high, 12-14 inches in diameter, and weigh 13-18 pounds. Maximum moisture content is 37 percent, and fat in dry matter is a minimum of 40 percent.
Montasio’s paste is semihard and elastic when young. It starts cream-colored with small eyes and becomes straw-colored as it ages. Over time, it dries and hardens, becoming crumbly and good for grating. Its flavor evolves from mild and creamy to savory and piquant, with hints of spice.
Montasio is sold at four stages:
- Fresco (young): 60 to 120 days
- Mezzano (semi-aged): 120 days to 10 months
- Stagionato (aged): 10 to 18 months
- Stravecchio (extra aged): over 18 months
Each wheel is stamped with its production date and producer’s ID number. After 100 days, all passing wheels are branded with the consortium’s logo. Wheels made in mountain creameries receive the PDM (prodotto della montagna) label. In 2009, about 1.05 million wheels were made, but by 2014, production dropped to around 950,000. Most Montasio is sold in northern Italy, with about 4 percent exported.
When young, Montasio is a popular sandwich and snacking cheese. It is used in a famous regional dish, frico, layered with apples and fried. Aged Montasio is often grated onto pasta or soups.
