OUR CHEESES

Aged 3 months, Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Dolce adds a truly luxurious flavor to many classic pasta dishes. Its sweet and mild flavor makes it a fantastic summer cheese. Creamy in texture with a relatively mild profile and slightly salty aftertaste, it's an excellent pairing for the white wines of summer. Firm, crumbly and dry it's also the perfect gourmet topping for crusty bread, pasta, or green salads.

Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Piccante is a traditional Italian Artisan cheese. Showcasing the Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) seal, our Gorgonzola Piccante is made from the rich milk of grass-fed cows and follows strict century-old production rules to ensure a perfect quality, moist texture and full-bodied flavor.

Gor-gon-zoh-lah Dolh-chay / Gor-gon-zoh-lah Pee-kan-teh

Lombardy, Italy / Lombardy, Italy

The origin of Gorgonzola goes back up to the 10th century with roots in the village of Gorgonzola near Milan, Italy. It was at that time a seasonal handcrafted cheese made from the raw whole milk of cows herding south from the Italian Alps for a milder winter. The cheese was traditionally made from a mix of the cold curd of the evening milk with the warm fresh curd of the morning milk. Gorgonzola Dolce gained PDO denomination in 1955 and is now acclaimed in many countries.

The legend behind Gorgonzola is that an innkeeper in the town of Gorgonzola had too much stracchino cheese and didn't used it quickly enough. After developing mold, he questioned whether the cheese was still good. Unableto absorb the potential loss, he served the cheese anyway. Oddly enough, the customers liked it so much, he had to increase production and allow time for mold to grow. Another story and more likely to be accurate is that overproduction from the stracca cows led to excess cheese that was stored in caves where it would naturally go blue over time. This is the method still used today. Gorgonzola Piccante gained P.D.O. recognition in 1955 and is now acclaimed in many countries.

Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Dolce (sweet) is a younger, therefore milder version of aged Gorgonzola, aged just three months. Gorgonzola Dolce, because of its shorter aging time, is wetter and whiter then Gorgonzola Piccante, which tends to have bluer streaks. Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Dolce is an elegant cheese with a supple white paste and light-green veining that is sure to please those who do not appreciate the traditional sharpness of traditional blue veined cheeses.

Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Piccante is considered to be one of the world's best blues. It is a sharp blue cheese that offers a crumbly-while-still-moist texture and beautiful dark-green veining. It is made by a leading Italian ... cheese maker using pasteurized and GMO-Free milk and aged in Italy for 90 days. It has won awards over the years: Blue cheese category gold medal at the 1997 London International Food Exhibition and Blue cheese category silver medal at the 2002 London World Cheese Awards.

A creamy texture with a relatively mild, sweet flavor and slightly salty aftertaste. It is firm and crumbly with a dry, thick rind and sharp flavor finishing with a sweet aftertaste.

Enjoy Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Dolce spread thickly on a piece of crusty bread, tossed in hot pasta, or as an ingredient in salad dressing. Serve it with plums for a real treat. When crumbled, Il Villaggio Gorgonzola Piccante is a unique and flavorful addition to salads and pizzas.