LE LANGHETTE
Production in the processing laboratory is mainly focused on fresh products, which ensure a higher yield than mature cheese. The shop’s refrigerators stock yoghurt as well as fresh and semi-matured sheep’s and goat’s cheese.
In the laboratory, Elisa makes giuncata, one of the typical products of Val Bormida, which is in great demand throughout the region. It is a neutral tasting curd that is eaten very fresh, and whose name comes from the rush mat where it was traditionally laid out to dry. “To us, this cheese is a reminder of our childhood snacks,’ explain Elisa and Sara. Indeed, in the Alta Langa, giuncata, sprinkled with coffee or sugar, is also served as a dessert”.
In the laboratory, Elisa makes giuncata, one of the typical products of Val Bormida, which is in great demand throughout the region. It is a neutral tasting curd that is eaten very fresh, and whose name comes from the rush mat where it was traditionally laid out to dry. “To us, this cheese is a reminder of our childhood snacks,’ explain Elisa and Sara. Indeed, in the Alta Langa, giuncata, sprinkled with coffee or sugar, is also served as a dessert”.
Giuncata
Giuncata is a cheese traditionally produced in the Alta Langa and in the neighbouring province of Savona by coagulating whole, raw sheep’s milk. Called “zuncà” in the local dialect, it was traditionally laid to drain on a rush mat. Le Langhette have drawn inspiration from this old-time tradition, although nowadays plastic baskets are mostly used. This means that the giuncata produced by the business based in Saliceto retains its traditionally irregular shape: “elongated and marked by the tiny parallel grooves that the mat straws left on its surface”, as explained on the ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori di Formaggi, the Italian national organisation of cheese tasters) website. The cheese has a white-glossy colour shade and its taste reminds of fresh milk. Giuncata can be eaten as a table cheese, au naturel, but it is also used as an ingredient in various recipes, both sweet and savoury.
In the laboratory there are also some cheese wheels with a thick, dark crust: this is the cheese matured in the gruta (the cave), a cheese defined as the Business’s great reserve, made with raw sheep’s milk and having a maturing time varying from a minimum of four to a maximum of six months. “We have produced 107 kilograms of it, – says Sara – an amount that was booked in advance and then purchased through a crowdfunding initiative that we promoted in order to fund the works to secure the gruta and turn it into a place suitable for maturing cheese, also in terms of health and hygiene standards”. The crowdfunding initiative was a success: 210 people joined the campaign, enabling Sara and Elisa to raise €11,500 (the initial target being €10,000), proving that Le Langhette’s dream, here in the Alta Langa, has become many other people’s dream.
