Caseificio Di Pasquo, milk masters since 1956
Find out more about the story of our dairy and discover with us the art of having good taste.
Caseificio Di Pasquo is an Italian dairy company specialized in cheese making. Di Pasquo’s fresh and aged cheeses stand out for their high quality and unique taste. For three generations, this modern and effective female-led cheese factory has been committed to instilling the passion and the art of having good taste in cheese lovers. Consumers, retailers and mass retailers, restaurant owners, distributors and authorized resellers are just some of our customers.
Di Pasquo: the art of good taste
The art of good taste is a belief and a gift we have been nurturing for three generations. Caseificio Di Pasquo is indeed one of the longest-running dairies in Molise and in Italy as well. Its steady growth and expansion strictly depend on this innate art, which lets us produce unique cheeses with a matchless and intense flavor. The sublime taste of our dairy products makes them stand out from the competition.
When talking about taste, we refer not only to the ability to perceive or experience the flavor of cheese but also the sensation of pleasure and satisfaction felt by exploring the feelings recalled in the mouth and throat by our products.
The art of having good taste is an innate talent we have been perfecting for 60 years of milk processing, a gift we have been sharing with anyone who chooses Di Pasquo’s cheeses. Our mission goes beyond the offline and online selling of fresh and mature cheeses. We aim at spreading the art of good taste by offering exclusive tastings and guided tours to discover the authentic taste and history of fresh dairy products and reserve cheeses made in Molise.
Di Pasquo cheese story: from nonno Ciccillo to Di Pasquo sisters
Caseificio Di Pasquo was born of Nonno Ciccillo, a well-known milkman in Agnone, and of his love for milk. With his passion and devotion, he set the stage for what has become, over the course of three generations, a real pride of Alto Molise dairy farming.
Nonno Ciccillo
It was 1956 when Francesco Di Pasquo, also known as Ciccillo, started working as a milkman in Agnone, supplying fresh milk to the local families every morning. Working in a small town, he soon became familiar with all the locals. In the same year, his dedication to work and the constant support of his wife, Cristina (Nonna Tina), led him to the purchasing of a small dairy store in the center of the town. Since the very beginning, Ciccillo showed incredible mastery in milk processing, so much that in just a few years the small store became a handicraft cheese-making lab where the milk was processed according to the Alto Molise dairy traditions. There he started producing his genuine and high-quality Italian cheeses.
1956 is the year the history of Caseificio Di Pasquo began. A family history made of three generations of hardheaded men, strong women, and top-quality cheese.
1956 is the year our story began.
Papà Lorenzo and Mamma Amelia
The young son of Nonno Ciccillo and Nonna Tina, papà Lorenzo Di Pasquo, immediately shared his father’s same passion and love for milk. That’s why he decided to move to Emilia-Romagna to study the dairy techniques of milk processing. After completing his studies, he got back to Agnone and started making cheeses with a unique flavor able to conquer and excite even the most demanding palates. Thanks to him, the small lab turned into a real dairy company aimed at the production of fresh and aged quality cheese made in Molise.
In 1970, Nonna Tina opened and managed the first and still-active Di Pasquo dairy store in the center of Agnone.
In order to improve his skills and promote the Di Pasquo brand and the typical products of the Alto Molise, Lorenzo Di Pasquo is often away from home traveling across Italy and abroad. During his trips, his wife, mamma Amelia, takes care of both the family and the dairy. Amelia, which is a strong and restless mother, runs the family business with great professionalism being the perfect production manager. Thanks to her supervision, the production line goes steady, always supplying extreme quality cheeses, which are the pride of our brand.
Full-time parents and master cheesemakers, Papà Lorenzo and Mamma Amelia made the Di Pasquo brand one of the symbols of the Molise cheesemaking tradition. A mark of quality known all over the world.
From father to daughters: a female-led dairy company
The passion for the cheesemaking tradition and the love for milk spread from Lorenzo and Amelia to their four daughters, Donatella, Debora, Fabiola and Martina. In the meanwhile, the dairy factory is renewed and expanded. While preserving the artisan nature that has always characterized it, it becomes a modern and efficient women-led company.
With the constant support of Papà Lorenzo and Mamma Amelia, the Di Pasquo sisters are currently leading the cheese factory, making sure that it keeps on producing high-quality stretched curd cheese processed according to the Molise dairy tradition.
The deep knowledge of the ingredients, the production skills handed down for three generations and the constant search for good taste are the distinctive elements that have made Di Pasquo dairy a point of reference in the Molise and Italian dairy world. That’s why Di Pasquo aged cheeses are manually fire-branded. Our fire-heated mark is a guarantee of quality and, also, an indelible mark in our hearts and in the hearts of our customers.
Milestones
Agnone and Alto Molise: dairy tradition and territory
Caseificio Di Pasquo is based in Agnone, a small town in Alto Molise. The town is located on the Central Apennines at 830 meters above sea level. It is full of woods and meadows, that’s why it has always been a land of transhumance. Thanks to its origins and territory, Agnone boasts an ancient and rich agro-pastoral and dairy tradition, typical of most of the towns in Molise.
Molise cheesemaking is an art deeply rooted in the old route of the herdsmen traveling across the region to the Gargano plains. It comes from the milk processing skills of transhumant shepherds handed down for centuries within the families in Agnone.
Since its origins, Agnone has been a land of pastures and transhumance, a land of arrivals and departures crossed and inhabited by shepherds, masters of milk and holders of timeless art. It is in this uncontaminated scenario that Di Pasquo dairy was born, as a result of a passion handed down from generation to generation and an ancient knowledge rooted in the territory of Agnone.
The factory
Nel nostro stabilimento vengono trasformati ogni giorno 25mila litri di latte vaccino altamente selezionato dai nostri esperti nelle migliori latterie italiane. Il rapporto di fiducia che ci lega ai nostri fornitori storici è uno dei punti di forza del nostro caseificio. Infatti, è proprio l’utilizzo di materie prime a qualità controllata, pure, pulite, igieniche e genuine che ci consente di garantire agli oltre 2500 clienti Di Pasquo standard qualitativi altissimi e costanti.
Per far fronte alla crescente richiesta dei nostri latticini e formaggi Made in Italy, lo stabilimento originario di circa 3000 mq è stato recentemente ampliato fino a coprire 5000 mq su un’area di 10000 mq. La realizzazione di ambienti più grandi dedicati alle varie fasi di lavorazione ci ha permesso di aumentare i volumi produttivi e di ottimizzare l’intero flusso di lavoro, garantendo il pieno rispetto delle norme igienico-sanitarie vigenti e livelli di qualità elevata e costante nel tempo.
Al termine della produzione e del confezionamento, gran parte delle consegne a rivenditori e punti vendita viene effettuata con mezzi di proprietà, che operano in condizioni altamente controllate per assicurare la massima igiene, freschezza e puntualità.
How cheese is made
1
MILK COLLECTION
Processing begins with the collection of raw milk, the main ingredient of dairy production. All our products are made with certified-quality cow’s milk coming from trusted Italian farms.
2
FILTRATION AND STORAGE
Once collected, the milk is filtered and then stored inside isothermal silos at a controlled temperature (0 ° – 4º). From here, the filtered milk is then sent to the processing line.
3
PASTEURIZATION
Before being processed, the milk needs to be pasteurized. Pasteurization is a thermal process used to make the milk sterile and safe by eliminating any pathogen. Di Pasquo cheeses are made with 100% pasteurized cow’s milk.
4
ACIDIFYING AND CURDLING
The pasteurized milk is poured into polyvalent boilers. Then, some cultures are added to the milk to make it ferment and become more acidic. At this stage, adding the rennet causes a reaction that curdles the milk, creating curds. This process takes different hours and it is constantly monitored by expert cheesemakers, who check the cheese milk until it reaches the proper compactness.
5
CUTTING AND DRAINING
As the solid curd forms, the curds are cut into small pieces in order to separate the curds and whey mixture. The curds are drained into fermentation tanks. Part of the fat whey is used for making our ricotta, another part is skimmed to obtain milk creams for our butter. Rather than being disposed of as production waste, the low-fat whey is used by other companies for the manufacturing of different products.
6
RIPENING AND FILATURA
During the ripening, the curds are left to acidify in the whey over a period of time. At this stage, a specific chemical reaction modifies the structure of the basic molecule of the cheese giving the paste an elastic consistency that allows the filatura. This process consists of a plasticizing and kneading treatment of the fresh curd in hot water, which gives the paste a fibrous structure.
7
SHAPING
Some stretch-curd fresh and aged cheeses are shaped manually, others are pressed into a mold or basket to create standardized shapes. If necessary, the binding is always done by hand.
8
BRINING
Once shaped, the dairy products are soaked in cold water and then into the brine. The cold water makes the cheeses harden while the brine makes them salty.
9
AGING
After the salting stage, fresh cheeses are packed, while ripened ones are left to dry and mature. Then, they undergo an aging treatment lasting from 30 days to 1 year.
10
PACKAGING
Once ready, all dairy products are packed and labeled either in single or multiple packs. Then, they are ready to be supplied to our customers.
11
FIRE-HEATED MARK
Di Pasquo’s signature products, namely Caciocavallo, Tufone and Cacio Campana are fire-branded to guarantee maximum quality and origin.
12
DISTRIBUTION
At the end of the process, our fresh and mature cheeses are distributed to our resellers and point of sales through a company fleet of refrigerated vehicles operating under controlled conditions.
