Blu di Bufala
|Bloo, dih, Boo-FAH-lah|
With twice as much butterfat as cow’s milk, buffalo milk is beautifully rich. It’s highlighted just right in this luscious buffalo milk blue. Blu di Bufala mixes mellow sweetness with a tangy piquant finish. Its balanced flavor makes it an easy intro for eaters who are new to blue.
Made by Italy’s Caseificio Quattro Portoni, the cheese is cave-aged for at least three months. During its aging, Blu di Bufala develops a wrinkled gray rind and grows silvery ribbons of mold throughout its ivory paste.
In 2000, the Gritti brothers transitioned their family dairy farm into a water buffalo cheese operation. The farm, run by the family since 1968, was struggling due to falling milk prices and competition with the many nearby dairies. In this region of northern Italy, cheesemakers are plentiful—but water buffalo cheesemaking, a practice more common in southern Italy, was not. Now, the farm churns out a steady supply of buffalo milk cheese, using milk from their herd of almost 1000 water buffalo (learn more about the farm here).
Blu di Bufala’s tangy bite means it’s well-suited to sweeter wines like Prosecco and Moscato d’Asti. Add a square of rich dark chocolate and you’ve got a decadent dessert.
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