The countdown to Cheese 2025 has begun. The major international event dedicated to raw milk cheeses, organized by Slow Food and the City of Bra, returns from September 19th to 22nd to the squares and streets of Bra (Cuneo) and the Agenzia di Pollenzo complex, bringing the aromas, flavors, and stories of dairy biodiversity from across Italy (and beyond). While you wait to plan your weekend in Bra, summer is the perfect opportunity to draw inspiration from raw milk cheeses: the star of picnics, aperitifs, terrace lunches, or dinners under the stars.
Here's a selection from Northern and Southern Italy to help you prepare for the event with taste, including traditional recipes and creative pairings with Slow Food Presidia, which you can purchase at the large Market at Cheese!
Northern Italy specialties: fresh, mountain pastures, and smoky flavors
Chard pie with prescinsêua, for a summer picnic
Fresh and delicate, this Ligurian savory tart showcases prescinsêua, the traditional Genoese curd with a creamy texture and slightly tart flavor. It's made with milk from Cabannina, a native Genoese cattle breed, a Slow Food Presidium. Hardy and well-adapted to the sparse, shrubby pastures of the Apennines, the Cabannina produces a small amount of milk, but it's of the highest quality, ideal for natural cheesemaking. The tart is made with a thin dough of flour and extra virgin olive oil, filled with a mix of lightly sautéed Swiss chard and prescinsêua, flavored with fresh marjoram and grated Parmesan cheese. Perfect both hot and cold, it's a great addition to picnics and light lunches.
In Upper Lombardy, Risotto with fatulì and wild herbs
In the Camonica Valley, in the upper Lombardy region, Fatulì della Val Saviore is produced. This smoked goat's cheese, named after the local dialect word for "small piece," is made from the raw milk of the Bionda dell'Adamello goat, a native Alpine breed at risk of extinction. Its production follows ancient methods passed down through the centuries: the curd is broken by hand with a scythe, and the cheese is smoked by burning juniper berries and branches. The result is a compact cheese with intense herbaceous and nutty aromas.
In a risotto slowly creamed with vegetable broth, the fatulì is grated at the end of cooking to enhance the smoky aromas, and enriched with freshly blanched wild herbs, such as nettles, dandelion, or sorrel, for a simple yet impressive dish.
Roccaverano ice cream with honey and peach from Borgo d'Ale, for a sweet and creamy finish.
Roccaverano is one of the few Italian goat cheeses to be awarded the Designation of Origin status in 1979, and has been protected as a Slow Food Presidium since 2003. Produced in the high hills between the provinces of Asti and Alessandria, it is made from raw goat's milk (sometimes with small additions of cow's or sheep's milk), processed without added starter cultures. Its texture is white, soft, and creamy, with a fresh, slightly tart flavor that evolves into more intense, vegetal notes with aging. In this recipe, the robiola is used to make artisanal gelato, sweetened with high-mountain Alpine honey, a Slow Food Presidium, which perfectly balances the cheese's acidity. Completing the dessert are Borgo d'Ale peaches, a Slow Food Presidium grown in the sandy soils of the Vercelli plain. Diced and lightly caramelized with the same honey, their juicy, fragrant pulp complements the gelato.
Central Italy offerings: bold flavors, ancient grains, transhumance, and Apennine pastures.
Sandwich with Sibillini mountain pecorino cheese and Fratte Rosa broad bean cream
A simple sandwich, yet rich in character, combining two Slow Food Presidia from the Marche region: Monti Sibillini pecorino, produced high in the pristine pastures of the National Park, and Fratte Rosa fava bean spread, made with an ancient and tender variety of legume grown in clayey soils, a tradition that has always been suited to small-scale, resilient agriculture. Monti Sibillini pecorino is made from raw sheep's milk, sourced from sheep raised semi-wild and fed on wild mountain herbs. It is made using traditional methods: coagulation with natural rennet, manual breaking of the curd, and a long aging process on wooden boards in naturally ventilated rooms. The result is a cheese with a firm texture, with notes of fresh grass and hay, and a rind that is often wrinkled and bloomy, reflecting the local microclimate. The longer the aging process, the more complex and enveloping the flavor becomes. The creamed fava beans, with their sweetness and texture, pair well with the pecorino cheese, creating an elegant and vegetal balance. An ideal pairing for a wholesome break!
Farro with roasted cherry tomatoes, salted ricotta from Valnerina, peaches and basil
A fresh and flavorful recipe for a lunch surrounded by greenery or, why not, by the sea. Farro—preferably einkorn or dicoccum, locally grown—is slowly cooked and topped with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes and flakes of salted ricotta from Valnerina, a Slow Food Presidium of southern Umbria. Made from sheep's milk whey, it's consumed after a brief maturation, which concentrates its flavors and enhances its texture. It's traditionally dry-salted and dried on racks in well-ventilated rooms. Its bold yet balanced flavor enhances the sweetness of the farro and the savory flavor of the cherry tomatoes: a celebration of the region's grains and cheesemaking traditions, complemented by peach slices and basil for a fruity, aromatic note.
Marzolina seasoned with pickles and chili pepper, for a rustic aperitif
An ancient and rare cheese, Marzolina is a small, hand-crafted goat's cheese from Lazio, made with raw milk in spring (hence the name), when goat's milk is at its richest in flavor. Part of the rural tradition of Ciociaria and the Comino Valley, it is one of the finest and most intense cheeses on the peninsula. The Slow Food Presidium for Marzolina protects this dairy gem, once used as "currency" for trade between shepherds. Once aged, Marzolina can be thinly sliced, topped with pickles, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a pinch of chili pepper for a rustic and vibrant snack, or served as an alternative vegetarian main course.
Southern Italy offerings: Mediterranean flavors, melt-in-your-mouth cheeses, and a blend of land and sea.
Caprese salad with mozzarella in myrtle, for a dinner on the terrace
In summer, caprese is a must. But for a touch of originality, you can choose to prepare it with mozzarella nella mortella, a Slow Food Presidium. This is a raw cow's milk mozzarella wrapped in myrtle sprigs (mortella, in dialect): an ancient preservation technique that naturally flavors the cheese, giving it balsamic and slightly bitter notes. This enriches the caprese with a wild note: slices of beefsteak tomatoes (or even better, heirloom tomatoes from Naples, a Slow Food Presidium), fresh basil, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil complete the dish, perfect for a terrace dinner or as a refined appetizer with a Mediterranean flavor, paired with rustic bread made with traditional grains from the Slow Grains network.
Spaghetti with Sardinian flower and bottarga, to amaze with simplicity
Shepherds' Fiore Sardo, a Slow Food Presidium, is the oldest Sardinian pecorino cheese, still produced today using traditional methods with raw Sardinian sheep's milk, in copper cauldrons, smoked over an open wood fire, and aged in carefully ventilated rooms. In this recipe, the spaghetti is tossed with an emulsion of the cooking water and grated Fiore Sardo, and finished with a sprinkling of bottarga and grated lemon zest. For a perfect finish, choose Cabras mullet bottarga, a Slow Food Presidium, artisanally produced in the Cabras lagoon in central-western Sardinia. This recipe brings the scent of the sea and Mediterranean scrub directly to the table.
Caciocavallo di Ciminà hanged, for a summer evening with friends
An ancient and scenic technique, the hanging caciocavallo exalts the traditional stretched-curd cheeses of Southern Italy. Caciocavallo di Ciminà, a Slow Food Presidium from the Calabrian Locride region, is a cow's milk cheese with a supple and fragrant texture, ideal for slowly melting over a fire, hung over live embers, dripping onto toasted bread below. The result is a stringy, flavorful cream, best enjoyed warm with freshly ground black pepper or citrus honey. A convivial ritual to share on summer evenings, with friends, at dusk.
