English wine, Italian cheese and lemon gratin
Silently maturing cheese wheels and tasting English wines
Centosettanta translates to 170 in Italian. Here, the number signifies a limited edition of a very special cheese. This hard, cow's milk Parmesan-style cheese was made by Georgio Cravero, a fifth-generation cheese affineur (someone specialising in ageing cheeses) in Bra, Piemonte, in north-west Italy. This is a limited edition cheese of 170 wheels made from milk from a single farm, each representing part of a day's milk production.
Strolling through Borough Market, I spot a sign suggesting a cheese and wine pairing using Gusbourne Brut Reserve, a delicious sparkling English wine made in Kent using the Champagne trio of grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Earlier this month, I visited Gusbourne for a tour and tasting and can imagine that this cherry, strawberry fruit-forward, citrussy streak wine would match the savoury, nuttiness and sharpness of the Parmesan.
Taste more of Cravero-aged parmesan at Cheese, the world's largest festival dedicated to natural cheese event, in Bra this September. www.cheese.slowfood.it
Gusbourne Estate wines
Once upon a time, the chilly waters of the English Channel lapped up against the boundary hedges of what is now Gusbourne, a thriving vineyard making award-winning English sparkling wines in the south of Kent.
Over the last 1,000 years, the sea retreated, filling the land with silt. The water is now some 6km from Gusbourne. Still, the onshore breeze it creates is one of the reasons the vineyard produces Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes, the classic trio that in France are fermented in Champagne.
I visited with @janesandstrom of @riedel_official and was kindly hosted by @gusbourne_wine . We tasted four sparkling and two still wines, including a 2018 sparkling rosé (59% Chardonnay, 23% Pinto Noir and 18% Pinto Meunier), delicate pink in appearance with soft summer berries and floral notes on the nose. My favourite at the tasting was the 2018 Blancs de Blancs, a 100% Chardonnay wine with a minimum of 33 months of lees ageing.
The vineyard is located around Appledore, Kent (24 hectares). It also has land (12 hectares) under vine in Hampshire, close to Goodwood, a country seat famous for horse and car racing.
Vines were first planted here in the clay soil in 2004. Gusbourne offers tours and tastings; see their website for more details. It’s a vineyard that continues experimenting with vines and fermenting methods. The winery is onsite. The estate can trace its history back to 1410, under the ownership of landowner John de Goosebourne.
Cravero cheese in Bra, Piedmont
Bra is where I lived while studying for a Masters in Food Culture & Communication at @unisg_official . During my time there, I was lucky to get a private tour of the Cravero ageing rooms, generally off-limits to the public - thousands of wheels stacked high in a warehouse that I first took to be a private house. Here is a review of that visit.
With one family name and two Christian names, the history of the Cravero family of Bra, Piedmont is told in cheese – towers of golden, ripening rounds of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Through five generations of affineurs (alternately named Giacomo and Giorgio) the current head of this Italian family business Giorgio Cravero is an engaging enthusiast for the King of Cheeses, Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Parmigiano-Reggiano, for me, is the complete cheese, the king cheese. In fact, when eating it as a table cheese, its fragrance and aroma satisfy delicate and strong eaters. And it always satisfies both the expert and the poet of the table Luigi Carnacina (1888-1981), world-renowned maestro of the grand cuisine.
A mutual friend introduced us before, one chilly evening, we made our way to the edge of town and a building that offered no clue about what lay behind its imposing walls. A couple of bells were rung, a hidden gate opened, and we found ourselves in a huge space full of golden-coloured cheese wheels generously reflecting the light and giving the rooms a warm, welcoming glow.
I always have Parmigiano-Reggiano, olive oil and pasta at home. When people get sick, they want chicken soup; I want spaghetti with parmesan cheese, olive oil and a bit of lemon zest. It makes me feel better every time Isabella Rossellini, actress
Cravero's cheeses are sourced around Pavullo in Emilia-Romagna, Italy in the Modenese Apeninne mountains. Indeed, to have a 'real' Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, the milk supply and dairy must be based in either the Bologna, Mantua, Modena or Parma region to get the official marques stencilled on its side. The raw milk's taste and structure maturing into Cravero cheeses is created by cows eating fresh, high-altitude, nutrient-filled grasses. The Craveros have been in the cheese business since 1855 and have a regular spot at the biannual Cheese event in Bra. This frenetic food event attracts raw milk cheese producers from around the world.
Tucked away on the edge of the little city of Bra, the spiritual home to the global food activism Slow Food organisation and behind a high, non-descript wall, is a warehouse filled with hundreds of slowly maturing wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano. In the cave's maturation room, cheese rounds are stacked 15 high, equally spaced on industrial-design chic pine wood boards held in place by steel scaffolding poles. The cheeses wait another 12 months before being shipped to eager cheese lovers in over 20 countries, including the US, the UK, France and Spain.
Using unpasteurised cows' milk, Parmigiano-Reggiano is made every day of the year and not interrupted by weddings, christenings or funerals. Giorgio takes delivery of wheels every two or three months, filling spaces left by the cheese packed up for customers after their year-long maturation period. "We rarely sell our cheeses at 36 months, preferring to offer our cheeses with a creamier, sweeter taste. At 36 months, the cheese is harder, dryer and saltier. At 22 or 24 months, the cheese is good for eating in chunks at the table or used for cooking".
The skin dries as the cheeses are rested, forming a natural, edible crust with no intervention. The average weight of a round is 36.2k (80 lbs).
Parmigiano Cheese: in our time, in Italy, supremacy is given to the quality of Parmigiano cheese, whereas in the past, the abundance of wool was boasted. Hence the couplet: …they are the noble fruit of milk from Parma Francesco Maria Grapaldo (1460-1515) comments on passages by Vitruvio and other historical authors
Giorgio is a skilled affineur, an expert in creating storage conditions for ageing cheeses over several months or even years. Affineurs need a good eye for selecting which cheese to buy in the first instance. However, the Cravero wheels are chosen by locally based experts fully aware of the quality of young cheese that would find a home in the Bra warehouse.
This maturing stage is vital in the life of cheese and is the sole focus of the Cravero family business. "We buy our cheeses from just two areas in the mountains south of Modena. We have never made our own. We are affineurs working to create the best Parmigiano-Reggiano. Wheels are often aged for 12 months at the dairy before the affineurs select their wheels and truck them to their own warehouses. Long-aged cheeses such as Comté and Gouda are similarly prepared for the market. This is where our passion and expertise lie," Giorgio tells me, waving his arm at the rounds, waiting patiently around him.
Parmigianino-Reggiano cheese production is a highly regulated operation in Italy. Still, it competes with fake and imitation cheeses made worldwide, particularly in the US, where food identity rules are looser than in the Europe Union through its Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) laws.
"We select our cheeses because of the terroir of the producer," says Giorgio. "The size of dairy, the approach and artisanal skill of the farmer and cheese maker and of course the cows and the grass they feed on."
Our cheeses are selected by people Giorgio has worked with for years. "They have a deep understanding and respect for the quality and type we want and our customers expect from us," he says.
"Their expert eyes look at each cheese, seeing holes, imperfections, cracks that may lead to trouble and a poorer quality end-product. Using a small metal hammer, they getting knock the sides, tops and bottoms, their finely tuned ears listening out for echoes that might suggest a poorly made cheese full of holes that might
The role of the affineur is both an art and a science, with skills built up over years of gaining knowledge of flavour profiles and caring for the cheeses to ripen gently in the best environment - in not too cold, hot, damp or dry conditions.
Cravero's wheels rest on wooden pine shelves, turning their wheels more frequently than other affineurs to make a product with a softer, less cakey texture. In the Cravero warehouse, temperatures and humidity are kept at around 8.6˚ C and 60% during the cooler winter months, allowing the cheese to rest, while in the hotter months (especially June, July and August), air conditioning is used to maintain a temperature of between 17 – 18˚ C. Keeping the cheeses in a modern warehouse allows better environmental control than traditionally achieved in underground caves.
The cheeses are flipped twice a month, which helps maintain the creamy texture.
To buy the Cravero cheeses, pop into Neal's Yard Diary outlets in London. If you're in Alba in Piedmont, Italy head to the cheese shop Dispensa del Convento.
Giorgio recommends pairing his Parmigiano-Reggiano with sparkling wines, name-checking Italian favourites such as Franciacorta from Lombardy, Prosecco from further east in the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia region or sparkling white wine from Piedmont's Alta Langhe region.
However, he whispered to me: "I like it best with Champagne".
Bruce and The Lemon Grove's events diary
Hosting the Demonstration Stage at:
Tonbridge Farmers Market (every second Sunday of the month, 9.30 - 1.30)
Aylesford Farmers Market (every third Sunday of the month, 9.30 - 1.30)
I'll be sharing recipe ideas using food from the farmers market and interviewing many great local growers and producers making wine, bread, jams, marmalade, and much more. Follow Tonbridge Farmers Market for updates.
Special Event: Celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager.
Tonbridge Farmers Market
May 14, (9.30am - 1.30pm)Special Event: Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival
More details coming soon!
LEMON & CELERIAC GRATIN
One of the most unusual-looking vegetables available at the farmers' markets, celeriac adds an earthy, nutty flavour to various dishes. It's delicious in curries, grated raw into salads or made into a gratin. Here is our recipe for a simple, delicious gratin recipe.
I shall be cooking this dish at this weekend’s Tonbridge Farmers’ Market (see above for details of the market).
Ingredients
600 g celeriac
1 leek
10g of fresh rosemary, leaves
2 garlic cloves
30g butter, unsalted
3tbsp vegetable oil (for frying)
200g mushrooms, portobello/ button
15g plain flour
1 tsp of bouillon powder/ block vegetable stock
275g crème fraîche
2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
75g cheddar cheese, grated
50g hard cheese, grated
150g, spring greens
Salt and pepper
1 lemon
Method
Put a medium saucepan of salted water on to boil.
Peel and thinly slice (no more than ½cm in thickness.
Boil for 5-6 mins until tender to a knife tip.
Drain well, and place on a plate.
Trim the leek, halve lengthways, then cut into ½cm slices.
Thoroughly rinse to remove any grit.
Finely chop 1 good tbsp of rosemary.
Peel and finely chop the garlic.
Melt the butter and ½ tbsp of oil in a large frying pan.
Gently fry the leek, garlic and rosemary for 10 mins, stirring often, while you slice the mushrooms (approx. 1cm).
Transfer the leek to a plate.
Add 1 tbsp of oil to the same pan. Stir-fry the mushrooms on a medium-high heat for 4-5 mins, until softened (do in 2 batches if needs be).
Transfer to another plate. Remove the pan from the heat.
Preheat your grill to medium-high.
Put the frying pan back on the heat.
Stir in the leek, flour, bouillon, crème fraîche, mustard, grated cheddar, ½ the Italian cheese and 250ml of boiled water.
Stir on a low-medium heat for 2-3 mins, until the sauce thickens slightly.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Remove pan from the heat.
Layer mushrooms and celeriac in the pan.
Gently turn them to coat in the sauce.
Sprinkle over the remaining hard cheese.
Grill for 6-7 mins, until golden, while you continue.
Strip the spring green leaves off their stalks.
Wash them, roll them up, before thinly shredding.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the saucepan.
Cook the greens with a tbsp of water on a medium heat for 3-4 mins, until wilted.
Season and add lemon juice to taste before placing alongside the bubbling gratin to serve.
