Why we remain the only importer of fresh, unripened Italian soft cheeses in Australia
For centuries, Italian’s have fermented the fruits of their dramatically versatile landscape. Capturing fresh produce flavours, enhanced through traditional preserving techniques, to forge the formaggio we continue to enjoy today.
Boasting over 400 varieties of textural cheeses, each unique in their flavour and form as dictated by their topographic origins, each Italian cheese has been specifically crafted through centuries of ancestral know-how. Proudly perpetuated from generation to generation.
While many worldwide have duplicated their production, attempts to achieve the artistic quality of this craft have not managed to replicate the unique flavour and form of fine Italian cheeses. Especially so in the case of the delicate, fresh, unripened soft cheeses. A highly perishable but incredibly fresh variety we personally import to Australia.
Believing in quality and craftful origin, we remain the only importer continuing to fly fresh unripened, Italian soft cheeses to Australia regardless of continued price volatility. A decision solely made to see our consumers ongoingly enjoy a taste of the finer things in life.
Our regular freight of fine Italian foods includes a limited supply of fresh unripened soft cheeses. Exclusively produced by Luigi Guffanti, sourced from dairies stretching from Puglia to Lombardy. From burrata and Mozzarella di bufala Campana DOP, widely known due to their more robust form, to the softer mascarpone, and a variety so fragile you most likely have not encountered it - stracchino nostrano. Not often tasted at this quality outside of Italy.
Read on for more about what differentiates these fresh, unripened Italian soft cheeses, produced as they should be, from the duplicated offerings circulating the Australian market.
Burrata
The modern-day favourite Burrata continues to be popularised due to a love for textural cheeses that engulfs the Australian consumer's senses. Heightened when hailing fresh from Italy’s southern heel of Puglia.
Burrata sees an external pocket of stringy pasta (similar to fior di latte) filled with a crafted mixture of fresh cream, milk enzymes and small off cuts of Mozzarella called ‘lucini’. Fresh in flavour and nature with a slight acidity, Luigi Guffanti’s burrata is best served with red tomato preserves, ciabatta and pasta without sauces. To be paired with white wines and lagers.
Mozzarella di bufala Campana DOP
Luigi Guffanti continue to produce their Campania buffalo milk Mozzarella in the area from which Italian’s have been producing ‘mozzarella’s’ or ‘provature’ since the middle ages. A coastal swamp area ideal for buffalo grazing. Seeing its ancestrally intended fresh, vibrant and sweet zesty flavour remain centuries on.
To experience its full flavour impact, consume at room temperature. Most deliciously with red tomato preserves and ‘schiacciata’ flatbread, paired with white wines and lagers.
Mascarpone
More like double cream in taste, texture and production, mascarpone is a smooth and rich cheese made from cow’s milk sourced from the Padana- Lombardy plains. The modern consumer is accustomed to a long-life version that lacks entirely in original flavour.
Luigi Guffanti achieves the unmistakably ‘alive’ intended mascarpone flavour, churning fresh cow’s milk to be curdled with an acidic element. While most famously recognised world-wide as a component of the house-hold Tiramisu, our in-house cheese specialist and award-winning Australian/Italian chef Stefano Manfredi agree on a more traditional choice.
Throughout Italy, you’ll find fresh mascarpone simply layered with Gorgonzola Dolce and walnuts. Referred to as a ‘cake’, this decadent delicacy is mostly served during the celebratory Christmas/New Year’s period. Best paired with white wines, rums and other syrupy spirits and liqueurs, served with spices and fresh or preserved fruits and nuts.
Stracchino Nostrano
Stracchino (also known as crescenza) is a fresh, unripened Italian soft cheese made with 100% locally sourced cow’s milk from Lombardy, Italy. Eaten young due its fragility, stracchino’s flavour develops to be more distinct over its short lifespan. Once arrived in the store, from Italy, mere days remain to consume fresh. A rare taste of fine Italian cheese.
Sweet, soft and melting, holding a faint bitter bite, stracchino is best served savoury with salty cured meat accompaniments such as prosciutto or rich Cremona fruit pickles or marmalades on Romagna ‘Piadana’ flat bread with a refreshing fruity white wine or lager.
About Luigi Guffanti
Luigi Guffanti continue to honour age-old Italian produce standards. Nurturing a vast selection of Italian cheeses since 1876 from within their cellars. Beginning from an abandoned silver mine almost 150 years ago, creating and ageing each fine Italian cheese variety to their own particular characteristics.
Experience a true taste of Italy by heading in store to Gourmet Life and trying a selection of specialty Italian cheeses. Soft to hard, unripened or aged and in between.