Marzolina – Slow Food, good mood!
*Marzolina* the diminutive form of the Italian word for March and a small by size but big by taste cheese from Italy´s Lazio region is a shining goat´s milk member of the PAT (prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali) and Presidio Slow Food family.
Products
under Slow Food Presidium are special products that are produced involving traditional techniques, native breeds as well as traditional implements and are often near extinction.
*Marzolina*, which originally was solely made in the first period of lactation in the month of March (hence the name), almost vanished from the cheese landscape and is now produced by less than a handful of producers in the Lazio provinces of Frosinone and Latina.
Our table companion is made by the Benaquista family from Campoli Appennino in the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park. Their happy flock of goats consists of the sturdy Grigia Ciociara and Capestrina breeds and grazes on pastures that are situated 1.000m above sea level with the milking taking place nearby.
*Marzolina* is a raw, pure goat´s milk amica who is made with the milk of two milkings and coagulation being triggered by the use of kid´s rennet.
The finger-shaped cheeses are hand-pressed and dry salted and prior to being put in shape and set in oil-filled glass vessels for further maturation have to sit in their molds on ventilated wooden shelves for a few days.
Rindless *Marzolina* has a dry and hard skin and can be consumed fresh or as in our case with months of maturation. Depending on age and time spent in olive oil the colors and structure of the paste changes from bright- to an ivory-white and from a softer touch to a more fragile paste building.
*Marzolina* offers fresh lactic aromas of acidic milk and sweet butter, with nuances of apricot and lemon zest. Gustav, who rates our table companion a hearty 13/10, says he especially loves the curd- like, hardy fluff paste that winks at you with clean eyes and delivers peppery hints of a joyful, innocent goat.
