Vezzena is one of Trentino's oldest and most storied cheeses, a semi-cooked, partly-skimmed cow's-milk cheese from the high plateaux of Vezzena, Lavarone, Folgaria and Luserna. Made in summer from raw milk skimmed of part of its cream, it is aged long — six to eight months for the table cheese, eighteen for vecchio, beyond twenty-four for the amber, flinty stravecchio. For centuries it was the region's grating cheese, dusted over soups and bread dumplings, and it was prized at the table of Emperor Franz Joseph, earning its billing as the 'imperial' cheese.
Vezzena is among the most historic cheeses of Trentino: the high pastures of the plateau were already praised in 1598 as the finest in the region. Made in summer from raw, partly-skimmed cow's milk and matured long, it was for centuries the local grating cheese, dusted over soups and canederli dumplings. Under the Austro-Hungarian empire it was an indispensable dish on the table of Emperor Franz Joseph I, whence its billing as the 'imperial' cheese. The summer malga wheels, made high on the pastures and stamped 'M', are protected as a Slow Food Presidium.
Young Vezzena is firm and springy, tasting of milk, mountain hay and toasted nuts with a gentle sweetness. As it ages the paste hardens and turns amber, the flavour deepening into something intense, savoury and lightly piquant, shot through with tiny crunchy crystals. The oldest stravecchio is hard enough to grate, with a long, almost caramel-like richness that made it Trentino's answer to the great grating cheeses.
Vezzena keeps and grates so well because of skimming and long ageing. Before making, the milk is left to stand so the cream rises and is skimmed off, lowering the fat and yielding a firmer curd. In the making the curd is cooked to around 46°C, driving off whey to set a hard paste. Over the following months and past two years, proteins are slowly broken down by proteolysis, precipitating tiny crystals of tyrosine that give the aged stravecchio its faint crunch, while free glutamate accumulates to lend a deep savoury taste.
Variations
Vezzena is sold at three ages: mezzano for the table, vecchio at around eighteen months, and stravecchio aged well past two years for grating. Summer malga wheels made high on the pastures and stamped 'M' are protected as a Slow Food Presidium and the most sought after. Young Vezzena is eaten in slices or melted; the aged wheels are grated over minestrone, barley soups and canederli, or shaved into salads, much as one would use Grana.
On the Palate
Where Vezzena sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12How it's made
7 steps · 45 min
- 1600 min
Let the evening milk stand overnight in shallow pans and skim off the risen cream, then combine with fresh morning milk.
- 230 min
Warm the partly-skimmed raw cow's milk to about 33–36°C, add calf rennet, and let it set into a firm curd, about 30 minutes.
Watch outBring the milk just to 33–36 and hold — too hot and the rennet sets a coarse, brittle curd instead of the firm, clean one you want.
- 315 min
Cut the curd finely to rice- or wheat-grain size with a curd harp.
- 440 min
Cook the curd, raising the temperature to around 46°C while stirring constantly, until the grains are firm and elastic.
Watch outStir constantly as you raise the curd to about 46 — even cooking is what firms the grains to an elastic bead; let it stick and heat unevenly and the paste won't set hard.
- 560 min
Gather the curd into large cylindrical moulds, press under weights, and turn repeatedly to expel whey.
- 6720 min
Brine the wheels in salted water for one to two days, then dry.
- 7259200 min
Age in a cool cellar — six to eight months for the table cheese, eighteen for vecchio, past twenty-four for the flinty stravecchio — turning and cleaning the wheels regularly.
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