The Castagna company is located near the most important Ossola valleys, valleys rich in pasture cheese productions that best represent the particularity of this territory.
The search for small pleasures starts in these particularly favourable and peculiar places and does not stop only with the typical products of the location area, but reaches the different regions of Italy to offer a variety of products that can satisfy the most diverse tastes and various distribution sectors.
There are about 450 varieties of cheese on the Italian territory, each of which has unique characteristics. It is from this multitude of products that Castagna’s research begins.
Among the excellent cheeses of the Val d’Ossola we find the Bettelmatt: there are 7 surveyed mountain pastures that can boast the name and the branding of this great cheese.
From small producers in Piedmont and from Lombardy, the selection of goat’s cheeses is derived, characterized by the use of mainly raw milk that transfers the aromas of its territory to the cheeses, the aromas of the pasture and the characteristics of the native breed from which it derives.
The search for Castagna ranges from the great classics such as the Robiola di Roccaverano, both fresh and seasoned, to the search for small delicacies that embrace tradition and innovation. The result of this union are exclusive and valuable products for the pleasant unusualness of the combinations used.
The continuous selection of small producers often leads to taste and learn about new products and to rediscover cheeses whose recipes are found and re-proposed by master cheesemakers.
A curious example is the “Crosta di pane” made with goat’s or cow’s milk, a historic cheese already mentioned in the first treatise on cheese written in the Middle Ages. A small dairy has rediscovered this recipe proposing to our tables a cheese of very high quality.
Another example of tradition is the “Pecorino Borgoantico”. Its processing technique, still based on the use of the circle instead of the mold, gives an irregularly shaped cheese.
The goodness of Parmigiano Reggiano D.O.P is recognized everywhere. The dairy of Ravarano Casaselvatica, located at 1000 meters above sea level, collects quality milk from the small stables of the area. The forms mature in the silence of the cellars for 24 or 30 months and are seasoned with a slow aging that gives a product of inimitable quality.
The continuous investigation and the study of the territory brings the company Castagna also in the small dairies located in Valle D’Aosta where very renowned mountain pastures, located between 1800 and 2000 meters, produce a fontina of incomparable quality. The organoleptic characteristics of great value are linked to the complexity of the flavours and aromas of the aromatic components present in the high mountain pastures and conveyed in the milk produced by Valdostana breed cows.
Particular attention was paid to the selection of blue cheeses, among which stand out excellent products such as Gorgonzola D.O.P. Gran Riserva (spicy) and Gorgonzola D.O.P. Strach’in (sweet). Both cheeses of “a time” produced entirely by hand from a historic dairy.
The passion for the research of new products leads the Castagna company to cross the national territory to reach cheese factories located abroad.
Think for example of Feta produced in a tiny dairy on Euboea Island in Greece, made with raw sheep and goat’s milk matured in barriques or the more famous Roquefort AOP Madame Carles produced with penicillium roqueforti cultivated on bread as per ancient tradition and family recipe. aged in the ancient caves located on the cliffs of Combalou, for years dedicated to the maturation of Roquefort.
Quality and tradition are the essential elements of the research that characterize Castagna products.
