This delicious cheese from the Scalve Valley is made in a hidden spot of Bergamo’s Alps, between the Seriana Valley and the Camonica Valley: the word skalf, in Celtic, means “fissure”. A very limited area, still rich of numerous gastronomic traditions.
According to the legend, during the XVII Century the daughter of a consul who lived in a boarding school near Bergamo wanted to taste a bit of a delicious cheese she had tried while she was on vacation, so she drove all the friars crazy till they finally found it. They called it Formaggella della Val di Scalve to tell it apart from other cheeses: unforgettable and irresistible.
The first issue of the Touring Club “Italy’s gastronomic Guide”, published in 1931, mentioned the Formaggella della Val di Scalve as a prestigious product. Its average weight is about 2 kilos: from the outside it is soft and white-grey, while the texture changes depending on the aging period. It is slightly sour but very tasty (the sourest cheeses are made during the summer, when the fresh mountain fodder is full of fat acids). It is prepared with cow’s row whole milk: it is a half-cooked cheese, which matures over at least 20 days. After 60 days the fragrance becomes more intense and the cheese gets more compact and dark.
You can taste it as the filling for ravioli or cannelloni, you can use it to make sauces for meat, first courses, omelettes and polenta, too!
This delicious cheese from the Scalve Valley is made in a hidden spot of Bergamo’s Alps, between the Seriana Valley and the Camonica Valley: the word skalf, in Celtic, means “fissure”. A very limited area, still rich of numerous gastronomic traditions.
According to the legend, during the XVII Century the daughter of a consul who lived in a boarding school near Bergamo wanted to taste a bit of a delicious cheese she had tried while she was on vacation, so she drove all the friars crazy till they finally found it. They called it Formaggella della Val di Scalve to tell it apart from other cheeses: unforgettable and irresistible.
The first issue of the Touring Club “Italy’s gastronomic Guide”, published in 1931, mentioned the Formaggella della Val di Scalve as a prestigious product. Its average weight is about 2 kilos: from the outside it is soft and white-grey, while the texture changes depending on the aging period. It is slightly sour but very tasty (the sourest cheeses are made during the summer, when the fresh mountain fodder is full of fat acids). It is prepared with cow’s row whole milk: it is a half-cooked cheese, which matures over at least 20 days. After 60 days the fragrance becomes more intense and the cheese gets more compact and dark.
You can taste it as the filling for ravioli or cannelloni, you can use it to make sauces for meat, first courses, omelettes and polenta, too!
The Formagella is produced throughout the year in the territories of Schilpario, Vilminore, Azzone, Colere; the milk is processed in the Latteria Montana Farm, established in 1964.
Valcalepio D.O.C. red, Terre del Colleoni D.O.C. red Incrocio Terzi
