Food

Discovering Dop cheese of Veneto

Casatella-Trevigiana-Dop
Written by EFW Staff

Dop of Veneto: let’s talk about cheese!

Matured, soft or creamy: DOP chesses in Veneto are a real institution. There are 8 types from Belluno to Rovigo, each province with its excellences; dairy delicacy appreciated in Italy and abroad.

Dop, what are they?

“Denominazione di origine protetta” is a certification recognized at a European level that guarantee that the production, transformation and working phases of a product are carried out in a particular geographical area, according to a particular code of conduct, approved by the European Union, Regione Veneto and written by the Consortium of protection.

In Veneto there are 18 DOP among cold cuts, cheese, honey, oil, Marrone del Combai, Aglio Polesano and Asparago di Bassano.

Dop cheese of Veneto

We all eat them daily, but how many of you know that these products are labelled with an authoritative certification? Here you can find Dop cheeses of Veneto:

From uplands of Vicenza: ASIAGO

The label Asiago DOP is limited to the version with semi-cooked dough, produced with cow’s milk and in two different types: Asiago Fresco (or Pressato) and Asiago Stagionato (or D’allevo). How to recognize it? Thin and elastic crust, dough with a white colour or slightly straw yellow, many rough eyes, delicate taste and pleasant.

Marca Trevigiana and its CASATELLA

Soft delicacy with taste of milk. Casatella trevigiana is a soft and milky cheese, perfect when raw or stringy. It is obtained by a process, called “caseificazione” of whole cow’s milk coming from races Frisona, Pezzata Rossa, Bruna, Burlina and its crossbreed. Even the races of the milked cows are 100% typical of the province of Treviso! It has a soft dough, bright and slightly creamy and fondant in the mouth.

GRANA PADANO, cheese per excellence

Grana Padano DOP doesn’t need to be introduced. It is produced and sold all year round in Italy and worldwide. It is made with raw cow’s milk through natural surfacing. It can be characterized by cooked dough, hard and slow maturing, it is used to eat or grate. Two curiosities? The typical shape measures 40 cm of diameter and the maturing goes from a minimum of 9 to more than 20 months.

MONTASIO taste of grazing and milk

This cheese is well appreciated in Veneto, Montasio has a hard dough, cooked, exclusively with non pasteurized cow’s milk, with a medium and long maturing and with a cylindrical shape. In its fresh version, it has a compact dough with few eyes, the perfume is delicate, slightly herbaceous and milky. Instead, the matured version is crumbly and with a straw yellow colour with a pleasant and spicy after seasoning.

From Lessinia MONTE VERONESE

Cheese to eat with a typical strong taste and semi-cooked dough. It is possible to find it with whole or bred milk in the case of skimmed milk. According to the maturing, it can be “mezzano” (from 90 days to a year) and “vecchio” (matured at least a year). Perfect at the end of the meal to pair with fruit and jams.

PIAVE, grazing and barn

All the taste of the grazing in Belluno, taste of hay, grass and milk. Piave has cooked dough, hard and matured, with different types: “fresco”, “mezzano” and “vecchio”, “vecchio selezione oro” and “vecchio riserva”. “Fresco” and “Mezzano” are sweet and milky; the seasoned versions it is savoury and structured, never spicy. Perfect melted in omelettes and lasagna.

PROVOLONE from Valpadana

Structured and savoury cheese, semi-hard with stringy dough. The compact dough is perfect to be melted, cooked in the grill pan but also in dices for aperitif and salads. Do you know its shapes? Salami, melon, truncated cone, pear with the typical spherical bulb.

Great pleasure with TALEGGIO

Let’s end with a bang! Taleggio, typical of Veneto and Lombardy is a raw cheese with soft dough; the taste is sweet, with a slight sour shade, aromatic and sometimes with an aftertaste of truffle. The maturing that takes place only through sponging of water and salt causes the moulds typical of its thin crust. It melts easily and it is perfect for canapé, to season complex dishes or with honey and fruit.

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EFW Staff