Robiola

{{Short description|Italian soft cheese}} {{pp-sock|small=yes}} {{One source|date=April 2026}} {{Italics title}} {{Infobox cheese | name = ''Robiola'' | image = Robiola della Valsassina.jpg | caption = ''Robiola della Valsassina'' | othernames = | country = Italy | region = {{plainlist| *Lombardy *Piedmont }} | source = Cows, goats, sheep or a blend | pasteurized = Best if not pasteurized, though can be with live lactic yeasts blended in | texture = Soft-ripened | fat = | protein = | dimensions = | weight = | aging = None to 20 days | certification = ''Robiola di Roccaverano'': DOC/PDO }}

'''''Robiola''''' is an Italian soft-ripened cheese of the ''stracchino'' family. It is from the Langhe region and made with varying proportions of cow's, goat's, and sheep's milk. One theory is that the cheese gets its name from the ''comune'' (municipality) of Robbio, in the province of Pavia; another that the name comes from the word ''rubeole'' (ruddy) because of the color of the seasoned rind.

thumb|''Robiola di Roccaverano'' Varieties of ''robiola'' are produced across Piedmont from the provinces of Cuneo, Asti and Alessandria and into Lombardy. It is one of the specialties of the Aosta Valley.<ref name=anderson>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Burton|title=The Foods of Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c9d0AvIQiOcC&pg=PA128|edition=5|publisher=Italian Trade Commission|isbn=978-1-4507-5291-6|pages=127–29}}</ref> The taste and appearance of ''robiola'' vary depending on where it was produced. ''Robiola di Roccaverano'' DOC/PDO has no rind and a slightly straw-yellow coloring with a sweet, yielding taste. ''Robiola Lombardia'' has a thin, milky-white to pink rind and tends to be shaped like small rolls. The cream-colored cheese underneath its bloomy rind has a smooth, full, tangy and mildly sour flavor, probably due to the high (52%) fat content. Its rind can be cut away, but is mild with no ammonia and adds a subtle crunch to the cheese. {{anchor|La Tur}}'''La Tur'''{{clarify|reason=This article describes properties of La Tur but fails to explain what La Tur is.|date=April 2026}} has a cake-like rind over a tangy-lactic layer of cream and is representative of Piedmont's ''robiola'' style of cheese where the fresh curds are ladled into molds, and drained under their own weight before aging rather than by pressing with weights. ''Robiola'' from the Piedmont region is a fresh cheese, and is usually eaten on its own, or with a little honey.

The cheese has a long history that is sometimes traced back to the Celto-Ligurian farmers of the Alta Langa: the virtues of cheese from Ceba (today Ceva) were extolled by the first-century Pliny the Elder in his ''Natural History'', but any identification of that cheese with the ''robiola'' of today must be speculative. However, in his ''Summa Lacticiniorum'', the fifteenth-century dairy produce expert Pantaleone da Confienza did describe the manufacture, and praise the quality, of a cheese with this name.

==See also== {{Portal|Italy|Food}} * List of Italian cheeses

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * "It's all in the blend for this Robiola", Janet Fletcher, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/7/05 [https://www.sfgate.com/food/cheesecourse/article/it-s-all-in-the-blend-for-this-robiola-2656939.php San Francisco Chronicle Online] * [http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/food/essentials/robiola.html Italian Cooking and Living ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060518191235/http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/food/essentials/robiola.html |date=2006-05-18 }} * Pliny on the cheese that might be Robiola in Book 11 of the ''Natural History'': ** {{in lang|en}} [http://old.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Ahead%3D%23704 at Perseus] ** {{in lang|la}} [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/11*.html#241 at LacusCurtius]

Category:Piedmontese cheeses Category:Lombard cheeses Category:Cow's-milk cheeses Category:Goat's-milk cheeses Category:Sheep's-milk cheeses Category:Ark of Taste foods