The lean, semi-hard counterpart to Fontina and the Valle d'Aosta's second cheese DOP, made from partly skimmed cow's milk of two or more milkings—the cream lifted off for butter—sometimes eked out with a little goat's milk. Turned in traditional feitchie moulds and aged from two months to nearly a year, it is fragrant and semi-sweet when young, firmer and piquant with a mountain-herb scent when old, and is sometimes flavoured with juniper, wild fennel or cumin.
Fromadzo is the Valle d'Aosta's historic lean cheese, born of thrift when the cream was skimmed for butter and only the semi-skimmed milk left for the wheel; it appears in Pantaleone da Confienza's dairy treatise of 1477 and in the roughly 1480 cheese-shop fresco at the castle of Issogne, was recognised as a controlled designation in 1955, and protected as a DOP cheese in 1996 under European regulation 1263 of 2 July that year. Made region-wide from the milk of two or more milkings, occasionally with a little goat's or sheep's milk, it is rested twelve to thirty-six hours and skimmed, curdled with natural rennet, moulded in cylindrical feitchie forms of 1–7kg, lightly pressed with three or four daily turnings, and matured at 8–14℃ above 60 percent humidity from sixty days to ten months. A genuinely niche cheese of only a few tonnes a year, it is eaten almost entirely within the valley.
Leaner and drier than Fontina, with a firm, close paste that breaks cleanly; young wheels taste of fresh milk and hay with a gentle sweetness, while aged ones turn savoury and lightly piquant, scented with alpine herbs and, where used, a resinous note of juniper.
Resting the milk twelve to thirty-six hours lets the fat globules rise so the cream can be skimmed for butter; the semi-skimmed milk left behind has far less fat, which is why the cheese sets firm, dry and lean rather than supple like Fontina. Natural rennet coagulates the casein, and repeated daily turning under light pressure drains whey evenly through the paste. During two to ten months of ageing at 8–14℃, proteolysis breaks the casein into savoury peptides and amino acids that sharpen into the aged wheel's piquancy, while lipolysis of the little remaining fat, together with terpenes from herb-rich mountain milk, builds the alpine-herb aroma; the low fat leaves the flavour drier and more direct than a full-fat cheese. Juniper, fennel or cumin pressed to the rind lend aromatic terpenes of their own.
Variations
The semi-fat version rests the milk twelve to twenty-four hours, the leaner one twenty-four to thirty-six; young wheels are eaten as table cheese, older ones grated over polenta and soups. Some makers stud the paste or rind with juniper berries, wild fennel or cumin seed, and in lean years a little goat's or sheep's milk is added. Fat runs from under 20 percent to at most 35, always leaner than Fontina.
On the Palate
Where Fromadzo sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
7 steps · 40 min
- 11440 min
Rest the whole milk of two or more milkings in shallow pans in a cool room for twelve to thirty-six hours so the cream rises.
Watch outRest the milk until a clear cream layer rises to the top — that's what you skim for butter, and skimming it is what makes this cheese set lean and firm.
- 220 min
Skim the risen cream for butter, leaving semi-skimmed milk; blend in a little goat's milk if desired.
- 345 min
Warm the milk gently and stir in natural rennet, leaving it to set into a firm curd.
- 425 min
Cut the curd to grain, stir, let it settle, and gather the mass in cloth.
- 530 min
Pack the curd into cylindrical feitchie moulds and press lightly, turning three or four times over the first day to drain whey.
Watch outTurn the wheels three or four times that first day to drain the whey evenly — skip a turn and one side stays wet and sets unevenly.
- 64320 min
Dry-salt the surface over the following days; for flavoured wheels, work in juniper, wild fennel or cumin.
- 786400 min
Mature at 8–14℃ above 60 percent humidity for sixty days to ten months, turning regularly, until fragrant and semi-sweet when young or firm and piquant when aged.