Cheese and charcuterie · Italian cuisine
Gorgonzola
Blue cheese from Lombardy and Piedmont – creamy dolce or firmer, sharper piccante.
At a glance
- Origin
- Defined provinces of Lombardy and Piedmont; PDO.
- Milk
- Pasteurised whole cow’s milk.
- Ageing
- Dolce 50–150 days, piccante 80–270 days, piccola piccante 60–200 days.
- Use
- Sauces for pasta and gnocchi; piccante on its own.
- Substitutes
- Another blue cheese; dolce and piccante each have their own taste and texture, which a swap changes.
Gorgonzola is a PDO cheese with blue-green to grey-blue veining. It is made and aged in provinces of Lombardy and Piedmont – among them Bergamo, Milan, Pavia, Novara, Vercelli and Cuneo – and in part of the province of Alessandria.
Whole cow’s milk from the area is pasteurised, inoculated with lactic cultures, Penicillium spores and yeasts, and curdled with calf rennet. The wheels are dry-salted for several days, pierced during ripening so the mould can spread, and aged in cool, very humid rooms. Dolce weighs 9–13.5 kg, ages for 50–150 days and is creamy and soft. Piccante ages for 80–270 days, the smaller piccola piccante for 60–200 days; its paste is firmer and crumbly, its taste stronger.
Dolce melts into creamy sauces for pasta and gnocchi; piccante is best eaten on its own.