Buying a cheese without a tasting in the store makes me a little nervous, and even more so when I can’t even see the interior or the rind of the cheese for all the leaves.
What lies within? Robiola di capra in foglie di castagno by La Casera
I took the Murray’s cheesemonger’s advice (“It’s perfect!”) and, after two weeks of deliberating over whether or not to spend $19.99 on an entire round of Robiola di Capra Castagno, fate made up my mind for me. “Oh, just go ahead and wrap it up,” one cheesemonger ordered a co-monger. “She wants it.”
Robiola di Capra was a mystery to me even up to the point that I tore away the Murray’s paper, which, by the way, came with a label promising me gustatory hallucinations.
Have a knife handy to cut the raffia.
“Something smells like vegetables rotting in the fridge,” my husband announced. I reassured him that it wasn’t the usual lettuce leaves. It was cheese leaves. Yes, my latest darling came with what Murray’s described as “seductively sweet aromas of the chestnut leaf wrapped around this Piemontese cheese.”
My new Robiola is a 100% goat’s milk cheese weighing around 300 to 400 grams (10 to 12 ounces or so, less now as I ate a much.) It comes from La Casera dairy di Eros Buratti in Verbania where Piedmont borders on Lombardy near the famous northern lake, Lago Maggiore.
It was very exciting cutting the raffia and then unwrapping the layers of leaves to discover what was inside—a funky Camembert-shaped cheese.
Wild rind
It smelled of moss and “forest floor” up close, and from far away, buttermilk and that indescribable scent that makes you ask yourself, “Is this something to eat?” Anyone who has ever fallen into a pile of leaves in late autumn, leaves that are crunchy on top, but growing damp and dark towards the earth…if you have ever enjoyed this crisscross feeling so much you wish you could eat it, then now is your chance!
Robiola di Capra in foglia di castagno reaches a beautiful temperature and holds itself well. The inside is white and a little chalky, but very spreadable. Towards the rind, it is gooier, so that the rind sometimes even separates some from the cheese in places or bulges out. The rind itself is a mass of thick, soft wrinkles that are highlighted by leaf tinge and tufts of white mold in the hills and valleys.
Check out the "sad streak" under the rind.
The runny part towards the rind really has the flavor of the leaves in it—spicy and nutty.
This cheese is an excellent party cheese. It spreads well and it makes such a dramatic entrance with the untying of the raffia and layers of leaves unfolding. It is aged about 20 days and is based on pasteurized goat’s milk, salt, and rennet. Check out the website (English available) for an even more impassioned description by the Italians. I clicked on the “Eros” tab for this link: http://formaggidieros.it/uk/consigli.html
