🧀 Quartirolo Lombardo

Quartirolo Lombardo is an Italian soft table cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO), made from raw or pasteurised cows' milk of at least two milkings. The milk of the first milking is used whole; milk of the second or later milkings may be whole or partially skimmed. Only calf rennet and salt are used.

Shape and size. The cheese is a rectangular brick or cube with flat sides and a straight heel: 18–22 cm across, 4–8 cm high, weighing 1.5–3.5 kg.

Fresh and mature. Fresh cheese is aged for 2–30 days from production; after 30 days it is sold as mature (aged). The rind is thin, soft and pinkish white in the young cheese and reddish grey-green in the mature one. The paste is compact, slightly grainy and crumbly, becoming firmer, soft and melting with age; it is white to yellowish white, more intense in mature cheese. The taste is slightly acidic-aromatic when young and more aromatic when mature. Cheese from semi-skimmed milk has at least 30% fat in dry matter.

Feed and area. At least 50% of the dry matter in the cows' annual feed comes from the area of origin; the feed is cereals, dry and green fodder and silage. Rearing, milking, cheesemaking and maturing all take place in the provinces of Brescia, Bergamo, Como, Lecco, Cremona, Milan, Lodi, Monza and Brianza, Pavia and Varese.

Labelling. Whole cheeses carry an origin mark pressed into a flat face, with the letters Q and L in the corners and the producer's number in the centre. Packaging shows the name, the word fresh or mature (aged) where applicable, and the PDO logo.