A unique cheese factory

A unique cheese

FACTORY

The name seems to be echoing the shape of the new store of the artisan dairy farm located in Bagnolo Piemonte, in the province of Cuneo, even if calling it La Fetta (the slice) is really an understatement. It tells the story of a family-run business, whose roots date back almost a century ago in 1928, when great-grandfather Carlo del Clat began producing butter and cheese in the Piedmontese countryside. The story continues today and the innovations introduced by the young generation include both the respect of tradition and some novelties, such as the production of gelato, as Valentina Turina tells in the following interview

What is La Fetta today?

It is not only the icing on the cake for our family business, but also a new starting point. We didn’t have a shop before and our wish to come into direct contact with clients had been in the air for some time. We imagined a formative and informative place, where our dairy experience and culture could be transmitted. Therefore the store is like a window onto our world: design and materials are the same as those used in the dairy premises, ranging from stainless steel to the wooden boards which were salvaged from the old seasoning cells. The introduction of gelato making is another way to give value to milk production and to bring our family together.

Who founded it?

Behind La Fetta there is a ninety-yearold story. Founded by Carlo del Clat’s, the dairy factory was handed down from one generation to another. Each of them innovated and developed the activity in his own way, introducing new produce and technologies. Today we – me and my brother Fabrizio – carry on the business, with the help of the other members of the Turina-Colomba family and 9 employees, while our brother Lorenzo did not follow the family footsteps. His passion for pastry making led him to travel around the world, at least until today, but his experience in gelato and chocolate making helped us in introducing the production of high quality gelato.

You inaugurated during a difficult period. How did you live the first months of the pandemic?

There were moments of suffering: suddenly everything stopped, our customers closed or severely limited their activities and we had to do the same. However, this forced setback allowed us to analyze the market in order to re-examine our range and look for new opportunities. Our work is in symbiosis with the agricultural world and we feel responsible towards the farmers we collaborate with every day. It was necessary to find a solution to make the most of the milk available and the production of gelato offered the opportunity to turn to reality a longcherished idea.

Local sources are the basis of your business: can you tell us more?

We have a close connection with our terroir. Milk collection takes place within a 20-km radius from our factory, involving some small farms which raise mostly native breeds, whose diet largely depends on long-duration pastures, and the same happens with other ingredients. Whenever possible, we buy locally sourced jams and fruits for yogurt and gelato, and choose local varieties because of their organoleptic characteristics. The hazelnuts come from our own groves, and one can glimpse them through the windows.

Is there a broader concept behind this?

Because of our close connection with terroir, we are carrying out a hay milk project. Using milk of own production and the one supplied by 4 more producers, we launched a grass fed line called Fit-Milk. It consists in feeding the cows almost exclusively with grass and/ or hay to obtain a kind of milk which has very interesting organoleptic and nutritional characteristics. Unlike corn and concentrated feed, grass is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and especially omega-3, and these features remain in the end product.

THE LORDS OF THE CREAM

What does it mean to adopt this approach?

It means having great respect for animals and much lower yields than the average (our cows produce on average 5-12 liters of milk per day, against 40-60 in intensive farming), but the result is exceptional in terms of quality and organoleptic profile, without considering animal health and longevity. It is no coincidence that our cows reach and often exceed 15-18 years, while the animals in the intensives now have an average life of only 4-5 years. We strongly believe in this project and we are convinced that the future of quality cheese-making can only go in this direction. And our customers agree too. We produce fresh milk, long fermented yoghurt, skyr (or Icelandic yoghurt), whey lactic drinks and some cheeses. The latest addition is gelato, which perfectly resumes our point of view, which is also respectful of nature, seasonality and well-being of those who consume it. In fact, our recipes require a minimum use of sugars, while enhancing raw materials.

Why did you decide to introduce gelato?

This decision is not totally original. About forty years ago we produced it, but then, due to the expansion of dairy production, we had to make different choices. Today, thanks to the opening of our store and the new La Via della Pietra cycle path, which connects the most important small cities in this area (Saluzzo, Barge, Bagnolo and Pinerolo) and is just a stone’s throw away from us, it was natural to reconsider

Fior d’Alpe gelato is obtained with hay milk and cream.

gelato as a complementary product. Even more so by having specific skills in the family. We studied it in every detail with the idea of offering the best recipes we are capable of, ranging from the careful choice of ingredients to glutenfree waffles.

What is the product that best describes you?

Identifying ourselves in just one product is really difficult. On the contrary, our strength is precisely having a structure of such dimensions as to be able to offer a great variety of products resulting from our passion and knowledge.

Have you any new projects?

In recent years we invested a lot of energy in the Fit-Milk project, involving universities and sports trainers in our research. We felt the need to understand and know more. This is how the incredible qualities of our grass milk emerged. Even today, there is very little scientific literature on the subject and we feel proud to have contributed to research in this field. We are going to develop our project further and we hope to obtain one day a production specification of hay milk, both for its qualities and for animal welfare. At the same time we would like to widen our gelato range with low-sugar-content tastes, obtained with few ingredients and suitable for also for athletes, who would thus be able to indulge in this pleasure without any problems. fit-milk.com

Silvia Federica Boldetti silviafedericaboldetti.com Photos Barbara Corsico

Moka

an international evergreen

The moka pot is a stove-top or electric coffee maker that brews coffee by passing boiling water pressurised by steam through ground coffee. Named after the Yemeni city of Mocha, it was invented by Italian engineer Alfonso Bialetti in 1933 and quickly became one of the staples of Italian culture”

Nowadays the spread of moka coffee goes beyond the Italian borders and I want to explain how to choose a moka pot and to give technical and practical information and tips for the proper use and maintenance of this fantastic object.

TYPES OF MOKA POTS

Today there are many models which mainly differ depending on materials.

Aluminum

Quick to warm up and light, it requires special precautions, especially due to the “softness” and porosity of aluminium. It must always be cleaned after each use and it must not be wet when you put it back. It requires constant decalcification and a close attention must be paid when emptying the filter

“beating” it to remove the exhausted coffee, to avoid damages and to ensure an adequate seal of the gasket. Aluminum could tend to give a “metallic” or even burnt flavor to the drink, because it warms up very quickly and homogeneously.

Steel

Very sturdy, a steel moka pot ensures a good and homogeneous heat conduction, even if it is slower than aluminum in reaching high temperatures. In some cases the filter is made of steel while in others it is made of aluminum, with the consequent recurrence of the problem indicated above. The latest models feature a silicone gasket that improves sealing. Steel pots are generally heavier, but they have the advantage of not giving any flavor to the coffee and keeping it hot for a long time.

Steel and ceramic

Aesthetically beautiful, with steel or aluminum bottoms and ceramic tops, I consider them among the best coffee makers, as in the phase of passage in the chimney and subsequent descent, coffee passes at lower temperatures and preserves its aromas.

Steel and glass

Although delicate, they are beautiful and allow to watch the coffee-brewing process. In some ways, I find them “hypnotizing” but unfortunately, having a minimal heat loss, they tend to release a slight burnt aftertaste.

Plastic

They are the latest generation models, suitable only in microwave ovens, and combine advantages such as lightness, aesthetics (there are available in all shapes and colors), the absence of coffee flavors transfer (as long as you do not leave the drink in the moka pot for a long time!), ease of cleaning, hygiene and quick usage. In about 2 or 3 minutes you can obtain a well-made coffee.

SHOULD GROUND COFFEE FOR MOKA BE PUT IN THE FRIDGE?

In general, all kinds of coffee must be stored at low temperatures. In the case of ground coffee for moka (in a can or packet), we must take into consideration some facts. According to a statistical analysis, more than 70% of consumers keep their ground coffee in a cupboard above the stove in the kitchen, as a convenient and usable place when they have to prepare their coffee pot in the morning, still a little asleep… But never forget that a 250 g can or packet lasts on average a week and let’s add that, when cooking, around 60°C develops in that cabinet. In those conditions, coffee is already rancid after 3 days! To provide an optimal solution to improve conservation, someone says that coffee should be stored in the refrigerator. Better there than in a hot place, especially considering that moisture in ground coffee has a little influence on the extraction performance.

COFFEE MAKING TIPS

The use of a moka pot is among the simplest and most efficient ways of making coffee, but sometimes some practices “handed down” from generation to generation are not exactly the best. Here is the correct procedure, taking into account that the dose of coffee ranges from 5 to 7 g per cup, with a volume of water in the boiler of approximately 40-50 ml per cup.

Grinding must ensure an adequate particle size, neither too fine as for espresso coffee, nor too coarse as for the filter system. In the first case we could have a difficult extraction, an excessively long percolation time, burnt coffee flavors and obstructions. In the second case, the passage of water is too rapid to preserve the coffee flavors.

After checking that the coffee pot is thoroughly clean and that it does not exhale musty or stale smells, fill the boiler with water up to approximately 0.5-1 cm from the valve. Many argue that cold water is a must, but the use of hot water speeds up the boiling process, thus reducing the risk of burning coffee.

In some cases, if water lacks salts or is too rich in chlorine, I suggest the use of bottled water with a medium fixed residue.

Water salts are useful to dissolve oily coffee particles.

Fill the filter but absolutely avoid pressing coffee! This would slow down the passage of water causing it to burn. Instead, try to settle it, lightly tapping the filter or gently “banging” the support base of the boiler.

Avoid making holes in the coffee panel after putting it in

the filter. This would only create preferential passages for water, without allowing it to “exploit” the coffee properly.

Check that the upper edge of the filter and the threads of

the boiler are clean and free of coffee dust, which would compromise the seal of the gasket.

Prepare a cup full of cold water, about the same amount that you did not put in the boiler to reach the valve. Place the coffee maker on a flame (not too high) and consider that, thanks to correct grinding and an adequate ratio of coffee in the filter, 1 to 2 minutes should pass from when the water boils to when the dispensing from the column ends, according to the size and material of the coffee maker. As soon as you see the coffee pouring out, pour the cold water into the upper part. In this way the first drops, instead of encountering the boiling metal, will avoid burning thanks to cold water.

When the coffee brewing process ends, remove the coffee pot leaving the lid open, even if you still hear some gurgling puffs. Before serving, stir it slowly in order to mix the coffee resulting from the first and the last brewing phases. Have a good coffee everyone!

UPPER CHAMBER

SAFETY VALVE FILTER

VAPOR

The optimal coffee dose ranges from 5 to 7 g per cup, with a volume of water in the boiler of about 40-50 ml

BOTTOM CHAMBER

Fabio Verona arabica100per100.com/

The first active powder gelatin

Gelecta is a 100% pure gelatin in granular form that can be used directly as it is without pre-hydration, for a perfectly-defined texture. It has the capability to cross-link with the smallest free water particles in a recipe (brought in by milk, creams, fruit purees…). Therefore, professionals can take advantage of the easier, faster and more precise performance of this innovative product. Even if it could be pre-hydrated, when it is used without pre-hydration, hot and directly in a recipe, there is no extra water in-take which can be responsible of a a dramatic reduction of the texture performance. It can be employed if necessary to achieve the desired results and when needed during pastry production, thus leaving more room for creativity. In certain circumstances Gelecta can be the perfect solution, such in the case of a whipped white chocolate ganache that may need to cope with thermal and mechanical stresses, while maintaining a soft and creamy texture over time and without losing its shape. The compromise between creaminess and stability could be achieved rebalancing the recipe, but it is possible to obtain the same result quickly and easily by adding 0.5%-0.8% of Gelecta to guarantee a solid structure without altering its lightness.

Whipped white chocolate ganache

fresh whole milk Gelecta g 310 g 10

white chocolate

g 380 35% fat fresh cream g 500

Boil the milk and pour onto the chocolate and gelatin powder. Let the chocolate melt, and remove part of the milk to make a bright and elastic emulsion with a spatula. Add the milk little by little, starting to whisk with a blender. Drizzle in the cold cream, continuing to emulsify with the blender, and leave to crystallize in the fridge for 12 hours before using. Whip in the planetary mixer with the beater at medium speed until the texture is creamy and firm.

gelecta.it/en/perfect-texture/

The Dolce World Expo

SIGEP - The Dolce World Expo will be the first exhibition organized by the IEG’s Food & Beverage Network (which includes Beer&Food Attraction and BBTech Expo,19-22 February in Rimini, and Cosmofood, in November in Vicenza) in 2023. The 44th edition will be held at Rimini expo centre from 21st to 25th January and simultaneously the 7th edition of A.B. Tech Expo dedicated to bakery technology and machinery, from storage to dough and preparation, will also take place. All the “traditional” sections will occupy the entire expo surface, giving room to the collaboration among artisan and industrial associations, national and international associations of gelato makers and pastry chefs and bakers, baristas and coffee specialists. Business, training, media and foreign professionals (with the support of the ITA-Italian Trade Agency) will make Sigep a true catalyst, where ingredients and products, the latest new machinery and systems will find their place, with and an increasing close attention for sustainability issues concerning furnishings, equipment and packaging. Products and visions will be closely intertwined to illustrate the evolution of the international markets, thanks to specialist medias and experts. The Vision Plaza format will welcome specialized analysts of the out-of-home network including the major global macro-areas, providing useful tools to operate in foreign markets. For over 40 years, Sigep has been synonymous of big international and national competitions. In the six Arenas, contests will alternate with live shows with renowned professionals and talks. The Dolce Arena will host the competing talents of the Gelato Europe Cup, which is the preliminary qualifying phase for the European teams leading up to the Gelato World Cup at Sigep 2024; the Junior World Pastry Championship; the Ladies World Championship, which will elect the next Pastry Queen, while the Gelato Arena will host live shows and talks. The Pastry Arena will host the Italian Senior Championship and the Italian Junior Championship, as well as SIGEP Giovani. In the Coffee Arena, the best Italian baristas will compete in seven national championships valid for the World Coffee Championship. In the Bakery Arena the international bakery contest Bread in the City will take place under the aegis of the Richemont Club. In the Choco Arena demos and talks will give room to master chocolatiers and cacao experts.

sigep.it