Welcome back to the Italy Deep Dive, a food, wine, recipe travel guide and narrative newsletter by La Panza Piena which takes place bi-monthly, diving into Italy’s history and food culture by unpacking, eating, drinking and cooking a town at the time.
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This week on Italy Deep Dive I’d like to introduce you to a corner of Piemonte that not many people are familiar with, something that I hope will change as the years pass. A land of hills, mountains, pastures, lush forests and castles (though not as many as the Langhe, a few dozen kilometers to the south). The area is Biella and the product we’ll be diving into (not literally, unfortunately) is butter, burro di malga to be exact.
Let’s dive
Butter production is widespread throughout the entire area of the Alps and more generally in every mountain locality, where pastures are green and summers often bleak. This isn’t just the story of a traditional, artisanal product, it’s the story of two people who chose to dedicate their life to safeguarding a Piedmontese tradition and craft.
Renata’s stone malga (summer hut near pastures, where butter and cheese are produced) is perched up high on the slopes of Monte Mucrone, in the province of Biella, 1.470 meters above sea level. Renata and her husband live in their malga, surrounded by nothing but cows (pezzata rossa di Oropa), pastures and the howling of the wind for four months every year. Each morning begins at 6am with a two hour long milking session, rain or shine. Renata then begins transforming the previous day’s milk into the fattest, creamiest and most delicious butter I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Their malga is one of three burro a latte crudo della Valle Elvo producers left in Biella, a tradition they’ve been able to upkeep also thanks to the abundant fresh water supply from nearby springs which has a constant temperature of 6 degrees C, preventing the milk from acidifying.
To produce butter, one begins by separating the cream which naturally forms on the surface of fresh milk, which is collected with a birch spoon. The butter is then washed with (almost) freezing spring water, and subsequently kneaded to remove any excess liquid. The burro is then manually shaped into a log, on which a pattern or drawing is embossed, using maple wood stamps. Each family that produces butter has its own unique stamps which get passed down through generations, often depicting flowers, animals or the family’s initials.
Once each stick of butter is weighed and perfectly packaged, Renata’s husband packs the precious cargo into his Jeep and makes his way down the mountain’s slippery slope to supply Biella’s finest restaurants.
Following his footsteps, I make my way down the slippery mountain with a small, bright white package whose scent is intoxicating yet comforting. Once back in the kitchen I immediately toast two thick slices of bread, which I soon after lather in the glorious burro. Oh my. It tastes of milk, of fresh grass and flowers from pastures… it tastes like a natural, real product.
Before we move onto eating, shopping and drinking, I wanted to take a moment to share a series of immersive and convivial workshops I’ve organized for the following weekends in my family home in Biella (pictured at the beginning of the newsletter, on the right). La Malpenga will host 4 workshops centred around food and beverage, each with a dedicated host, expert in their field. Yesterday we held the first, a Gin & Mixology workshop with Cillario&Marazzi Spirits. The following weekends will see Mina Novello lead a day of Foraging and Cucina Spontanea, myself with a Biellese Wine & Cheese tasting and finally Tommaso Fara lead an Alternative Cooking workshop (in which we’ll see him use the sun and a mirror as a BBQ).