It stretches and it transforms, it is rolled up and moulded. This is how the curd is processed nowadays in the dairies of the Provolone Valpadana. But this happened also in the past, among the mountains and the plateau of our Southern Italy, when the provolone was the cacio, cheese, used as a “test” for tasting the “filatura”, stretching, on the curd and see if it was good to make the most important cheese, the caciocavallo.

flask

We now understand, dear friend, how many acquired, settled gestures, codified on official registers (the Production Specifications) took shape from events that started in a natural way and for very practical reasons. The history, as we know it, sounds like this: the milk was squeezed on the pasture of the Southern Italy and it was delivered when the acidification was already completed and it was ready to become curd after being shaked, before reaching the dairy, which was often far and not easy to access, through uneven roads. The curd had to “stretch”, “fliare”, and the “test”, or better, the outcome of the Provolone, gave the go-ahead or not.

salamino shape

The stretching is still the crucial moment of the processing of the Provolone Valpadana: the result is a band, then it is wind round itself, and finally moulded in a way to avoid the appearance of air balls inside it.

The moulding determines the form (which can be spherical, pear-shape, mandarin shape, cylindrical shape, or pancetta shape, or salame shape..) and the size (from a few hectograms to more than 100 kilos). In the same way, the type of rennet (of bovine or sheep origin) that was put in the milk will determine the Provolone: sweet or spicy, de gustibus, according to your tastes.

pancetta, pancettone

The moulding moulds, and it is right to say so, because the forms, rounded and sinuous of the Provolone Valpadana remind the gentle and defined winding curves of girls. In fact, a triumph of forms, flamboyant and differentiated, but still always unequivocally of Provolone Valpadana, will walk down the catwalk in the ripening storehouse or in the stocking rooms, like a top model with a determined manner, aware and a little bit arrogant.

pear, gigantino

This is the style of the Provolone Valpadana, self-confident and self-satisfied of its past and of its actual status of versatile and modern cheese, that the international gastronomy cuddle and the connoisseurs won’t miss: sweet or spicy, fresh or mature, mandarin-shaped or cylindrical-shaped. But always, dear reader and consumer, Provolone Valpadana P.D.O

melon

mandarino, mandarone