Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Italy, Veneto

Formaggio nostrano veronesenostrano veronese

Nostrano veronese is the semi-cooked farm cheese of the Lessinia mountains north of Verona. Evening and morning milk is skimmed by letting the cream rise, which goes to butter, and set with calf rennet in 25–30 minutes. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, cooked at 47 °C for 15 minutes, drained 24 hours, salted and ripened at least 3 months.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe regional sheet gives the method but no amounts. A wheel weighs 6–10 kg.
Raw cow milk from Lessinia herds, mostly Brown and Friesian cowsSkimmed by letting the cream rise; the cream is made into butter ('el boter')[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Calf rennet, liquid or powder[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Salt, dry or as brine[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Cream rises off the milk in shallow basins and is skimmed for butter

Step 1 of 7
Skim by creaming
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: part-skimmed milk; cream for butter.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Nostrano veronese is the semi-cooked farm cheese of the Lessinia mountains north of Verona. Evening and morning milk is skimmed by letting the cream rise, which goes to butter, and set with calf rennet in 25–30 minutes. The curd is broken to rice-grain size, cooked at 47 °C for 15 minutes, drained 24 hours, salted and ripened at least 3 months. Made in 7 steps over 3 months. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 3 months (Regione del Veneto).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3 monthsReported[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]Ripen
Temperature33–34 °CReported[onaf-sheet]Set with calf rennet

What makes this one different

The old farm cheese of the Lessinia, made from milk skimmed for butter and semi-cooked at 47 °C. It is ripened at least 3 months.

Rind
Thin and elastic, straw yellow
Size
Ø 25–35 cm, height 5–10 cm, 6–10 kg
Composition
Fat in dry matter not less than 30%
Season
Made all year

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is used raw and the cheese is ripened at least 3 months.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, enterotoxigenic strains; in Monte Veronese, a related PDO cheese of the Lessinia, S. aureus numbers were above the Italian tolerance limit in 78 % of instances; Coagulase-positive staphylococci, E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli, monitored in raw-milk dairy products of north-eastern Italian alpine dairies in general (not this cheese); staphylococci and E. coli were the ones most often over regulatory limits.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The regional atlas traces it to the medieval settlement of the Cimbri in the Lessinia. The dairy terms, such as mastele, scalere, boter and fassar, are still those of the past.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [pat-sheet] Regione del Veneto, Atlante dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Veneto, Formaggi, 'Formaggio nostrano veronese', p. 160 (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), technical sheet 'Formaggio nostrano veronese'web
  3. [onaf] ONAF, cheese page 'Formaggio nostrano veronese' (id 1080)web
  4. [poli2007] Poli A, Guglielmini E, Sembeni S, Spiazzi M, Dellaglio F, Rossi F, Torriani S. 2007, Detection of Staphylococcus aureus and enterotoxin genotype diversity in Monte Veronese, a Protected Designation of Origin Italian cheese, Letters in Applied Microbiology (abstract)paper
  5. [prandi2026] Prandi I, Pezzuto A, Massaro A, et al. 2026, A Fourteen-Year Surveillance Study on the Microbiological Status of Raw Milk Dairy Products from Alpine Dairies in Northeastern Italy, Foods 15(9):1479 (abstract)paper