Summary
Alessandra Trompeo, center, creates soft cheese inside her converted garage, or "cheese cave," using fresh milk from the Chapel Hill Creamery. Trompeo's soft cheese in curd form, left, before being pressed into rolls and aged in a cooler inside Trompeo's home business, La Casa del Formaggi, right. She started the business in June 2007. PHOTOS BY DEREK ANDERSON
Among the cheeses Trompeo regularly makes are il Duca, made in the style of Toma, an Italian semi-hard cow's milk cheese; and the Duchessa, similar to a Raschera, another soft cow cheese with complex salty and "green" notes. She also makes a Gorgonzola-like blue cheese and a casera cheese.Knowing how to make the cheese and when it's "done" is a fine dance between precise science and a precise palate. "To make cheese, you need to know a little microbiology, chemistry, things about the climate," said Trompeo. A change in the feeding habits of the cows-say, hay instead of grass during this summer's drought-will effect subtle but noticeable changes in the cheese, including a very white color.See the full content of this document
Extract
From Turin to the Triangle
It takes an artisanal cheesemaker to fully appreciate the honor of having a Jersey cow named after you.
Durham's Alessandra Trompeo understands that Jersey cows provide a milk rich in butter-fat-the perfect base for the cheeses she crafts as the founder of La Casa del Formaggj ("house of c...See the full content of this document
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