- Hello everyone, it's Barry here
and welcome to My Virgin Kitchen.
I hope you are well.
Today's video is sponsored by the folks from
Grana Padano Cheese and oh boy, are you going
to love this video.
We're gonna show you how Grana Padano Cheese is made.
Hopefully you'll learn a little bit about it and then
gonna finish it with a absolutely gorgeous recipe.
But first, let's go the Italy.
(waves breaking)
Oh, so here we are in actual,
this is Lake Garda in Sirmione
and we're gonna go there today
and find out how Grana Padono Cheese is made.
So, let's get going.
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Grana Padona was created my Monks
in the twelfth century and is made throughout
the Poe River Valley in Northern Italy.
It is an original Italian Cheese
produced locally using and exact recipe.
We we're lucky enough to be shown around
one of the producers of the cheese
that still do many of the traditional methods
originating years ago to make the cheese
at scale on a daily basis.
A variety of elements come together to create
this unique cheese
such as the nutritional qualities and ingredients used
right down to what the cows are eating where
the milk is sourced.
It also have a distinct cylindrical shape and rind.
The milk comes in super fresh and is
partially skimmed in large tanks
where the cream will naturally rise to the top.
Huge copper cauldron which are actually submerged
in to the ground and deeper than they look externally
are then filled with 1,000 litres of milk.
A way is then added which was produced the day before.
The lactic acid bacteria begins to start the process
transforming the milk into cheese.
It's then steadily warmed to ensure
a consistent temperature throughout.
Then the rennet is added which helps to create a curd.
When the feel of the mixture is right
a giant whisk is used which
I even got to have a little bit of a go at
to help break the curd.
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It is then left to cook at a steady temperature
and settled to the bottom of the cauldron.
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After an hour the curd is lifted out using
a wooden spatula and linen cloth by colleges.
They work together to help roll and smooth,
lift out and drain it before slicing in half
with a knife effectively creating two wheels
of the cheese.
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The moulding then starts where the cheese wheels
are placed into individual moulds for 24 hours
with a weight on top.
Each wheel is given it's very own passport
for complete transparency and traceability.
Cheeses are then turned over, given the
world famous branding for the rind later on
and switched to a metal mould for another
24 hours.
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The cheese is then given a salt bath
for a minimum of 14 days and is then
after this brining stage and a dry in the drying room
it goes in to a rather epic room indeed.
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- This is where the cheese will rest
until being ready for dispatch to the customer.
Each wheel will be turned and brushed approximately
every two weeks.
After quality checks to ensure all is good
with each individual wheel it can
then be branded with Grana Padano Mark.
Those that fail the checks will be covered with x marks
and etched out from any Grana Padano branding entirely.
We we're lucky enough to watch three different wheels
being carefully opened and got to taste test three
different types of the Grana Padano.
The ageing process comes in a lot here.
The younger the cheese, the more creamy it is
but as it ages it becomes more crumbly and grainy
with a more stronger flavour.
Different cheeses work well in certain situations.
For example the creamer, younger cheese is nice
for topping or finishing pasta.
Where the older ones as they take a little longer
to break down are better going into the dish,
to add flavour direct.
I'll show you this in my recipe in just a moment.
You can even cook the rind of the cheese
in a variety of ways including adding into a bowl of soup
to melt the flavour directly in.
What I love most was witnessing the
sure passion and dedication to this craft
everybody involved in the process has.
It was a really great opportunity to witness
this first hand and I hope
you have found it as interesting as I did.
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Those columns of cheese was epic,
the smells was stonking.
I'm leaving Italy with some wine from Mrs. Barry,
some authentic pasta for the recipe your about to see
and of course loads of Grana Padano.
I'm kinda worried about my airport luggage situation.
Probably have to pay a little bit extra
but let's get back to the kitchen.
That was an amazing trip, I hope you'll agree.
It was my first time in Italy and I
absolutely loved it.
I loved the people, I loved the culture,
I loved their passion for food.
I learned so, so, much.
I'm gonna condense this small amount in to this video
so hopefully you'll go on to the Grana Padano website
and find out a lot more.
Speaking of which I do have a massive amount,
this actually took up most of my weight luggage
in the airport.
Massive weighted cheese here with me.
So let now make an awesome recipe with it.
The ingredients your gonna need are,
two tins of chopped tomatoes,
one chopped onion,
two chopped garlic cloves,
100 millilitres of cream,
one teaspoon of rosemary.
See just rip it off the stalk and chop til
your hearts content.
300 grammes of good quality pasta.
I actually brought some back from Italy.
And of course the Grana Padano.
Now, obviously you might not have two different varieties
like me but luckily I can take the stronger one
to go in to this dish
and the more milder one, the more creamy one
for the topping.
First thing you do is grab yourself a frying pan
and add in two tablespoons of olive oil.
So, get that slightly warmed and then add in
your chopped onion and the rosemary.
Now you want to cook that away
pushing it around the pan.
We're not completely frying it and charring it
just let all those smells release, good.
That should take around about five minutes.
Then you want to push in your garlic cloves,
get them in there too.
About two or three minutes again
just push that through with a wooden spoon
that will become all fragrant again
and will start to cook away with the onions
and rosemary still in there.
Gorgeous!
Next up add in your chopped tomatoes,
that's two tins dumped straight in to the frying pan.
And it will cool it down initially at first
but then start to bubble and come up
to a nice lovely simmer.
You want to grate on your Grana Padano now.
Oh, get that all in there.
Let it rain with cheese, and stir it through,
let that simmer for a good 20 minutes.
Meanwhile get yourself a saucepan to one side,
bring it up to a low simmer,
and push in your pasta.
Cooking it to just under package instruction.
Just before your pasta is ready you'll notice
your tomato sauce is gone all nice and thickened now.
And we'll concentrate the flavour just pour
in your double cream and mix that through.
It will change the colour slightly and really
wrap that taste up even more so.
And then all that's left to do is
take your cooked, strained pasta.
Push that in to the pan, stirring it through
so that all the bits of onions go inside the
rigatoni pasta.
It's all mingled together
and it's serving time baby.
So simply grab yourself a lovely looking dish
and spoon down heaped mountains of that pasta.
And then as I say if you've got the option
of the creamer Grana Padano on top,
grate that on there but any you can find
just for that extra flavour boost and pepper.
That combined on top will look absolutely gorgeous.
And it taste phonomanal, trust me.
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Um, bellissimo!
That's one of the only words that I learned in Italy
but it's phonomanal
Before I say arrivederci, a massive thank you
to Grana Padano for sponsoring this video.
Without them none of this would have been possible.
And I can't believe I got to see it with my own eyes.
It was actually a really, really cool thing to do.
So again, thank you so much to them.
If you want to find out more about Grana Padano Cheese
you can head to their website.
The link is here and also down below
in the description.
But for now, arrivederci.
I'm Italian, I'm startin to cook like it.
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