The best Italian cow cheeses

How We Select and Ship Vaccinated Cheeses

Spaghetti & Mandolino has always been synonymous with quality: we are the only e-commerce in Italy that guarantees only excellence products and, as such, deserve a proper shipping and packaging that preserves the integrity and freshness of each cheese thanks to special freshness-preserving packages!
 

Vaccinated cheeses: some characteristics

Cheeses made with cow's milk account for the vast majority of the global dairy production landscape. There are many types of dairy cows, but the most important one in Italy is probably the Brown breed, once called Brown Alpine.

The nutritional characteristics of cow's milk are generally around these values: water constitutes 87.5% of the milk content; proteins, among which the most representative is casein, account for 3.5%; the same percentage applies to lipids, which vary depending on whether the milk is skimmed or whole; 5% of the content consists of sugars, among which the lactose; the remaining 1% consists of minerals, mainly calcium. The values of the Brown breed's milk are slightly different: they indeed have more proteins, but also more fats.

Cow's milk cheese: what does it mean?

The nutritional characteristics of cow's milk are around these values: water constitutes 87.5% of the milk content; proteins, among which the most representative is casein, account for 3.5%; the same percentage applies to lipids, which vary depending on whether the milk is skimmed or whole; 5% of the content consists of sugars, including lactose; the remaining 1% consists of minerals, mainly calcium.

The values of the Brown breed milk are slightly different: they have more proteins, but also more fats. The lipid content can vary, and based on its percentage we have whole milk with between 2% and 4% fat or high-quality milk (over 4%) just as it comes from the cow's udder. Furthermore, skimming techniques (partially skimmed, skimmed) are industrial techniques applied post-milking to reduce fat content.

Cow's milk cheeses: which are the most famous

Cow's milk cheeses cover the vast majority of the global dairy production landscape. There are many types of dairy cows, but the most important one in Italy is probably the Brown breed, once called Brown Alpine.

On Spaghetti e Mandolino, you will find only the best of vaccinated cheeses. For example, the caciocavallo podolico is a large cow's milk cheese from the southern Italian tradition, especially from Basilicata and Calabria. Produced using the spinning technique like mozzarella, these shapes weighing between 1 and 2.5 kg are hung with twine on support poles in cellars for a ripening period of at least three months. It is part of the foods recognized as Slow Food presidia.

Another cheese that you absolutely must try is the Blu aged with Oseleta pomace. This is a cow's milk cheese produced in Piedmont and inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti, which gives the typical blue-veined characteristic. The maturation process is done by wrapping the cheese with the pomace of freshly pressed Oseleta grapes from the Valpolicella Classica. In this cheese, we find all the goodness of a cow's milk cheese that has undergone fermentation in the pure style of blues and the exquisite aging in the pomace of one of the typical grapes of Valpolicella. The Oseleta, a small bunch yet rich in color, tannins, acidity, and aromatic qualities such as spice and cherry, makes it one of the most sought-after grapes today in great wines like Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG.

If you want to impress your friends or relatives who love good vaccinated cheeses with something incredible, we recommend Blu61 and Bagoss di Bagolino.

Blu 61 is an exceptional blue-veined cheese made from cow's milk, multi-award winning and created through aging in passito Raboso wine and red berries. Its paste is creamy, with a widespread presence of blue veins due to the blue-moulding. It is characterized by its elegance and harmony: an intense, decisive taste balanced by the typically sweet winey notes of passito Raboso.

Bagoss di Bagolino is a typical mountain cheese produced only in 28 small companies within the Bagolino area, on the Brescia mountains. It is a real jewel, golden in color: this is because the paste contains saffron. Bagòss is made only with milk from Brown breed cows raised in Bagolino, taken to graze in one of the 22 alpine pastures recognized in the Bagolino area and fed with local hay. The cow's milk cheese shapes are then aged for 36 months. The finished product is a true masterpiece: the rind is oily, the paste is ripe and consistent and tends to break into flakes.