A prized semi-hard table cheese of the Lys valley around Gressoney, made only in summer in the high alpine pastures from raw, partly skimmed cow's milk. The 2-5kg wheels are pressed, salted and aged on wooden boards in cool cellars, tender and good after a couple of months, excellent after a year, and kept up to eighteen, in a plain or a lightly smoked version. Sliced with rustic bread as an antipasto, or melted into the local chnéffléne fonduta, it is a listed Traditional Agri-food Product of Valle d'Aosta.
Toma di Gressoney is a latticino of the malghe, the summer dairies of the Lys valley, which runs from Pont-Saint-Martin up to Gressoney-La-Trinité in Valle d'Aosta. It is made only in the summer months, in pastures above 2,200 metres, from raw partly skimmed cow's milk: the evening milk is rested and skimmed after about 24 hours, the morning milk after twelve. The curd is worked, pressed into round wheels 15-30cm across and 5-12cm high, weighing 2-5kg, then salted and aged on wooden boards in cellars or caves. It is 'tender and good' after a couple of months but 'becomes excellent after a year', with an ideal maturation of up to eighteen months; a well-aged wheel shows mushroom and musk aromas and notes of pepper and vanilla. Made in a plain or a lightly smoked version, it is eaten as an antipasto with rustic bread and melted into the local chnéffléne fonduta. A listed Traditional Agri-food Product (PAT) and once a Slow Food presidium, it is the subject of a valorisation project by the Lys-valley communes and producers working toward a formal consortium and disciplinare.
Young, it slices clean and creamy with a milky, faintly grassy sweetness from the alpine pasture. With age it firms up and turns savoury: mushroomy and musky, with a peppery bite and a vanilla-tinged, almost Parmesan finish. The smoked wheels carry a soft woodsmoke note under the fruit.
Raw-milk cheese relies on the milk's native lactic bacteria, which ferment lactose to lactic acid and drop the pH; rennet then cleaves κ-casein and the destabilised casein micelles knit, with calcium bridges, into a curd that traps fat and water. Cutting and pressing drive out whey by syneresis, and partial skimming of the rested milk gives the semigrasso body. During months on wooden boards, residual rennet and microbial enzymes slowly break casein into peptides and free amino acids (proteolysis), softening the paste and building savoury, umami depth, while lipolysis of milk fat releases the free fatty acids behind the mature aroma; the wood surface hosts a beneficial rind flora. In the smoked version, wood-smoke phenols add aroma and help protect the rind.
Variations
Beyond the plain and lightly smoked wheels, age determines its use: young toma is sliced for antipasti and melting, while long-aged wheels are grated like a hard cheese. Locally it is the cheese folded into chnéffléne fonduta, and it also melts into polenta and layered valley-style bakes; a wedge with dark bread, walnuts and honey is the simplest way to serve it.
On the Palate
Where Toma di Gressoney sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12How it's made
8 steps · 1 hour
- 120 min
Combine the rested, partly skimmed evening and morning milk and warm it to about 35°C in a copper or steel vat.
- 240 min
Stir in calf rennet and let the milk set undisturbed until a clean curd forms, roughly 30-40 minutes.
Watch outWait for a clean break before cutting — the curd should part sharply around a finger; cut it slack and the grains won't firm or shed whey right.
- 330 min
Cut the curd into small grains and stir gently, warming slightly, so the grains firm and shed whey.
Watch outStir and warm the grains gently until they firm up and shrink — this is what drives out whey; rush it and the paste stays wet and won't age clean.
- 460 min
Lift the curd into round moulds, press to expel more whey, and turn the wheels several times over the next day.
- 530 min
Salt the wheels, by dry-salting or a brine bath, then move them to a cool cellar.
- 686400 min
Age on wooden boards at cellar temperature, wiping and turning the wheels regularly, for at least a couple of months and up to about eighteen; smoke lightly over wood if a smoked wheel is wanted.
- 730 min
To serve as an antipasto, bring a wedge to room temperature and slice with rustic bread.
- 815 min
To make the fonduta, melt diced young toma gently with a little milk until smooth and pour over bread or dumplings.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
