How it was born: in the beginning it was of scant commercial importance, so that it isn’t possible to establish precisely the period of its first appearance. It’s well known that it was born in Valle di Scalve, the valley after which it was called. The legend goes that, in the XII century, since a consul’s daughter, who was staying at a boarding school in Bergamo, wanted on her table the cheese she had eaten during her holidays, drove mad the friars of that place until the kind of cheese, which the naughty girl wanted, was found. So they called it “formagella of Val di Scalve” in order to distinguish it from the other cheese. From then on this cheese was very appreciated for its therapeutic properties which moreover have been proved.

How it’s like: it’s a soft paste cheese made only with cow’s milk. It’s cylindrical with plain faces and slightly convex sides. Each cheese weighs even 1,5-2kg. The rind is soft and elastic, white-grayish. The paste is soft with different degrees of density according to the ageing phase. The punching is almost always absent or limited in number and dimensions. The taste is pleasing, slightly acidulous and sometimes sharp. More savory in the summer production because of the components of fresh mountain forage. The fragrance is delicate with an acidulous veining which is stronger in the summer production.

How it’s made:  made of cow’s milk. It’s daily processed (twice a day) in order to preserve its freshness and the aromatic essences of the alpine pastures giving it a characteristic, unmistakable flavor to this mountain cheese. After a 20 day ageing the cheese is eaten as table cheese, but the ageing period can go on for 20 or 30 days, in order to obtain a more savory and thicker product. Once the ageing is over the cheese must be kept in rooms with a high level of moisture to stop the microbial activity and in order not to let the cheese loose the water contained inside, so determining a remarkable loss of weight.

Production area: the whole territory of Val di Scalve.