You can taste it by choosing a name that has made history in the Veneto cheesemaking tradition of Monte Grappa: Enrico Catuzzo, the cheesemaker who works with raw milk.
Cheese the old-fashioned way.
Cheeses need love.
In fact, they need a great love of tradition and good ingredients. This is hard work because you have to choose cow's or goat's milk carefully. And you have to treat it the correct way, working entirely by hand. All this requires passion and expertise, two ingredients that make Enrico Catuzzo's raw cheeses and caciotta special.
More than 40 years experience.
When you see Enrico using the milk with the knowledge handed down from past generations, you understand that this is art. The cheesemaker began his experience as a young boy, when after school he would give his father a hand collecting milk which he then took to the cheese factory. Enrico spent his long summers in the mountain pastures of the Monte Grappa plateau where he learned a lot. Milk from the alpine pastures was different and you had to learn to smell it, observe it and treat it accordingly to obtain a good raw milk cheese that maintains the aromas of the herbs and the scent of the pastures.
Such wonderful milk!
It all starts with this step: the white gold produced by the cows and goats in the pastures around the dairy in the hills above Treviso, close to the Vicenza hills. This is important. Quality comes from the raw ingredient and if you want to be sure you need to know what your animals eat.
Enrico gets his milk from animals that are reared in the countryside of Pagnano, in the province of Treviso, and eat only hay obtained from permanent grazing pastures, corn, flax seeds and GMO-free soya. This results in the milk being rich in Omega 3. And when you try his cheese you can taste the difference that all his attention to detail makes.
“”Behind every cheese there is a pasture of a different green under a different sky.””
Italo Calvino
Everyday gestures.
Simple gestures but not banal. In fact, here lies the great wisdom of those who know how to bring out the flavour of raw milk cheese in the best possible way. For example, choosing milk from one single milking. In other words, from the evening milking, so that by morning it is rested and ready for processing. All this and more is the work of our trusted cheesemaker.
Angela, passing of the baton.
So who’s learning the secrets of cheesemaker Enrico Catuzzo to continue the tradition of good Venero cheese produced in the hills of Asolo? We have Angela following in his footsteps ensuring that the tradition remains in good hands, very much alive and well.
Good cheese is made here.
This is who takes care of our best cheeses: Enrico (Rico to his friends) and the trusted cheesemakers.
The processing method.
The basis of good cheese is definitely the raw ingredients. And there is also a great deal of attention paid to the method by which the milk is processed.
Tasty and safe.
Raw milk.
On this point Enrico Catuzzo does not budge an inch: only raw milk from a safe and clean farmyard. He uses unpasteurised milk for the cheeses and caciotta he produces, because this is the only way to truly express the art of the cheesemaker.
Only the best for you.
Milk enzymes.
Enrico uses neutral milk enzymes in his processing. The reason: they do not affect the taste of the cheese and he only adds them to help the natural cultures present in the milk. In this way the cheese can express its characteristics and flavours to the full. Without altering these characteristics.
The rules of tradition.
Temperature.
Enrico uses temperature as a cheese artist: by adjusting it, together with enzymes and time, he obtains the exact cheese he wants. Furthermore, by not using heat in excess of 45/50 degrees, the nutritional properties remain unaltered.
An ancient, special ritual.
Processing.
Machines are important, they allow you to speed up processes. But Catuzzo follows tradition: many steps are still done by hand, as in the past. Because if you respect the tradition of the cheesemaker, you get the best result. And the best cheese.
Do you want to try Enrico Catuzzo’s cheeses?
Would you like to have a slice of goat’s milk caciotta, which is rich in valuable nutrients thanks to its processing? Or perhaps you’d like to try the one made from cow’s milk. That’s what we call a caciotta with a dummy, because it tastes so good!
