It´’s not a secret that Gustav and I are huge fans of Italian cheeses and traveling to Italy is a regular must. This time we were in the Piedmont and found our way to Giaveno about an hour West of Turin where we stopped by *Azienda Agricola Fratelli Lussiana*.

The little towns of Giaveno and Coazze in the Sangone valley are home to Slow food family member     Cevrin di Coazze which is only produced by a handful of cheese makers.

*Cevrin* in the local dialect means a mix of cow’s and goat’s milk cheese and * Cevrin di Coazze * is indeed exactely that. A mix of goat´’s and cow’s milk with a goat´’s milk proportion of at least 40%.

The goats of Lussiana family are Chamois Coloured Goats from the Piedmont valleys (Camosciata delle valli piemontesi), which don’t produce as much milk as eg. the white Saanen breed but are robust and well adapted to the mountainous territory they live in.  The cows are of the autochtone and sturdy Barà cattle breed which is similar to the better known Pustertaler, derives from the valleys around Cuneo and Turin and is unfortunately in danger of going extinct.

With production time limited from March to November when the animals are out in pasture ,dry salted, *Cevrin di Coazze*can be made from raw, thermized as well as pasteurized milk and has a minimum age of 90 days. The evening milk of the cows is completed with the morning batch of the goats and in our case coagulated with the help of calves rennet.

*Cevrin* has an unpressed and semisoft paste that melts hesitantly midst its regular eyes and releases notes of spicy mushroom and lactic, nutty pastures, all of which make you feel history, valleys and animals alike.
We paired our * Cevrin di Coazze * with a Barbera d’Asti that manages to cut through the spicyness and brings out the milder more buttery sides of todays guest of honor.

Gustav rates our travel encounter a happy 12/10 and says next time he will also keep an eye on people and landscape and not just the cheese.

Well Gustav, welcome to my world …