Pannerone

What is Pannerone Cheese?

Pannerone, also spelled Panerone, comes from the lowlands of Lombardy, above all the provinces of Cremona, Lodi and Pavia. Benedictine monks made it first in the Middle Ages and later taught farmers how to work it. The name comes from the Milanese dialect word panera, meaning cream, because only fat-rich whole milk goes into it. The Italian agriculture ministry lists it as a traditional agri-food product.

Before the Second World War it was made across the whole area, with Pandino as the centre of production. It is still sometimes called panerone lodigiano, since Lodi held its traditional market. Three producers are left, at Caselle Lurani, Pandino and Casalpusterlengo. Pannerone di Lodi has been a Slow Food presidium since 2003 because the cheese risks dying out.

Raw whole cow's milk is coagulated at around 30 °C in about half an hour with relatively large doses of rennet. The mass rests a quarter of an hour, then gets broken by hand into very small pieces, wrapped in cloth bags and left to drain for roughly thirty minutes. The curd is cut small again and moved into the moulds, where it stays four or five days at 28 to 32 °C to finish draining. Ageing lasts about sixty days, and ten litres of milk yield one kilogram of cheese. No salt is added at any stage.

Finished wheels are cylindrical, 25 to 30 cm wide and 20 cm tall, weighing 10 to 13 kg in the large format and 5 to 6 kg in the small one. The rind is thin, smooth and straw yellow. Inside, the paste is soft and cream white, with large holes spread through it. The shape recalls gorgonzola, which is why it picked up the nickname gorgonzola bianco, though the two cheeses are made very differently. Without salt, it keeps roughly sixty days.

The taste opens sweet and smooth, then turns bitter, and the absence of salt stands out. That sweet-bitter contrast and the odd aroma do not suit everyone. Consumption is small, and Pannerone now works more as a gastronomic curiosity than an everyday cheese. Winter is the usual season, though it is produced year round. It pairs with honey, jam, mostarda and salted anchovies that have been soaked first, and it goes into risottos and salads.