the sunken/l’infossato

Description

The custom of burying cheese has been passed down for centuries as an integral part of the region’s farming traditions. The origin of this practice goes back to the need to hide food from the frequent robbers of the time. Forced to adopt this practice over time, it was found that the cheese gradually matured in this environment and, during its fermentation phase, the aromas of the fresh grass in the milk blended with those of the dry straw that served as padding on the walls of the pit. Infossato has an irregular shape without a rind, with a hard or semi-hard paste of a straw-yellow color, depending on the initial cheese. It has a strong and harmonious flavor. It has an intense aroma of sheep’s milk and grass in the medium-ripened varieties and of dry straw and roasted hazelnuts in the long-ripened varieties.

The use of seppellire il formaggio was considered part of the traditional customs of the region in the past centuries. The origin of this practice stems from the desire to remove the cibo from the brigantaggio frequente in that era. Costretti a questo tipo di esigenza col passare del tempo ci si è accorti che il formaggio in quell’ambiente aveva una maturazione graduale e durante la sua fase fermentativa riusciva a mescolare i profumi dell’erbaceo fresco presente nel latte, con quelli della paglia secca presente come cuscino sulla parete della fossa. L’Infossato si presenta in forme irregolari, prive di crosta, dalla pasta di consistenza dura o semidura a seconda del formaggio di partenza, di colore giallo paglierino. Ha un sapore deciso ed armonico. L’odore è intenso, di latte di pecora ed erbaceo in quelli a medi stagionatura, di paglia secca e nocciola tostata in quelli di lunga.