Identikit and main features
The Raschera Pdo is a semi-fat, raw, pressed cheese, it has a white and compact texture. Fresh cheeses have a fine taste, while in the most seasoned it is sapid, more intense almost spicy. The mountain-pastures Raschera cheese is carachterised by herbs. It is produced using cow’s milk, rarely mixed with goat’s or sheep’s milk and it is heat at 29-30°C, adding liquid rennet in order to obtain the milk curd. One hour later, the milk curd is broken down with a paddle and stirred for five minutes. It needs to be seasoned at least 30 days for productions made with hygienised milk and at least 60 days for the raw milk productions.
Area of production
The Raschera is produced and seasoned in the area of the Cuneo province, as established by the Disciplinare di Produzione. The Raschera Pdo can bear the label “d’alpeggio” if it isproduced and seasoned at 900 mamsl: Frabosa Soprana, Frabosa Sottana, Garsssio, Magliano Alpi, Montalto Mondovì, Ormea, Pamparato, Roburent and Roccaforte Mondovì.
History
This cheese has always been produced in the mountains of the Mondovì area, and this shows the strong relationship with the region in fact it bears the name of a mountain pasture and a ofpasture at the foot of Monte Mongioie. The Raschera alp, with an area of over 620 hectares is included in the Magliano Alpi territory. In Piedmontese dialect the term “Raschera” is used to indicate the cheeses produced in the Mondovì area. In 1976 in Frabosa Soprana was founded the “Confraternita del Raschera e del Bruss” whose knights used to promote and sustain the production and the selling of this cheese. When it seemed to disappear, this Confraternity helped to promote this product and aroused the interest of many public entities, in fact in 1982, thanks to the Camera di Commercio of Cuneo and to the Comunità Montana delle Valli Monregalesi, the Raschera cheese was recognised as a AOC (Guarantee of Origin status) product and in 1996 the UE gave it the Pdo.
