New Jersey’s Italian Cheese Empire

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In Abruzzo, Italy, lies a small village by the identify of Anversa degli Abruzzi. And after I say small, I imply it—simply over 300 folks inhabit the mountainside city overlooking the Saggitario Gorge. Livestock roams within the mountains of this eye-catching denomination. 

A household on this village—the Marcellis—herd sheep and goats for the aim of constructing farmstead cheeses. Their farm, La Porta dei Parchi, has been in existence for 45 years and is sought out within the area as a pillar of sustainable and moral agriculture. Many of those cheeses are fairly distinctive, utilizing uncooked milk from historic breeds of livestock that feed on mountain grass and herbs particular to the realm. This, mixed with the experience of a household who eats, sleeps and breathes cheesemaking, creates kinds of cheese that differ closely from something made right here within the States. Merely put, these cheeses are nothing like something you’ve gotten ever had.

4,300 miles from Abruzzo in Clifton, New Jersey, lies one other set of Marcellis. Their job? Importing and distributing their prolonged household’s expertly-crafted merchandise. That is the story of how Marcelli Formaggi—a transatlantic household enterprise—got here to be. 

I first met Tina Marcelli of Marcelli Formaggi again in 2019 after I was working as a server. She was a visitor and, unbeknownst to me, the supplier of a number of of our cheeses that night. One of many pastas on our menu contained an imported cheese from Abruzzo that I very elegantly pitched to her. She began laughing. “I offered that cheese to you guys,” she mentioned, “that’s my household’s cheese!”

I used to be a little bit bit embarrassed, however Tina listened to me spiel your complete factor with a smile earlier than revealing to me that she knew extra about it than I ever may. Her eyes gentle up on the story of her household’s merchandise—regardless of what number of instances she’s heard or instructed it. And for years, I had heard bits and items of the complete story, but it surely wasn’t till lately that Tina sat me down and gave me your complete historical past of Marcelli Formaggi, full with a cheese tasting that lined quite a lot of their catalog.

The very first thing Tina made sure I knew was that Marcelli Formaggi is a household enterprise in each sense of the phrase. Her ancestors have lived in Anversa degli Abruzzi for over 500 years and probably even longer. Clearly, over the centuries, some stayed put and others made the lengthy trek to America. “It’s a household,” Tina instructed me,  “It’s a proud time [for us].” 

From the inception of the enterprise to now, that sentiment has by no means wrinkled. 

It began nearly 15 years in the past when the “American Marcellis,” as Tina calls them, took a visit to the village the place her household was from. For practically all of them, it was their first time setting foot within the motherland. It was additionally the primary time any of them would meet their Italian household—Italian Marcellis. What they didn’t know was that for a few of them, this was the beginning of one thing a lot bigger than a household trip.

Photographs courtesy of Marcelli Formaggi

Previous to the go to, Tina and her quick household have been fully oblivious to what their Italian kin did in Abruzzo. Upon assembly, they sat down for a meal and Nunzio Marcelli—a newly found relative and cousin of Tina’s father, Bob—put down a cheese board for the guests to feast on. “I assumed he may need purchased it for us, which was good,” Tina instructed me. Nevertheless it was really cheese that he made. Proper there within the village. The household was immediately enamored by the standard of the cheese, which tasted nothing like even the very best high quality cheeses within the US. The flavour of recent sheep’s milk was extremely current in any of the pecorino cheeses and recent goat cheeses tasted of the terroir of the mountainside.

Nunzio’s cheeses are what’s often called farmstead cheese—merely that means he makes the cheese with the milk from the animals raised on the farm. It’s a hyperlocal manufacturing and thus, one that’s bursting with terroir. Moreover, as a result of the Marcellis don’t elevate cows within the mountains, additionally they carry cow’s milk cheeses that they buy from native farms in Abruzzo. The farms work collectively as a collective. This creates a well-rounded and sophisticated catalog stuffed with cheeses from a number of completely different animals introduced in a number of alternative ways—every one in contrast to something discovered within the States.

Photographs courtesy of Marcelli Formaggi

After tasting the cheese for the primary time, the wheels already started turning. When Tina and her quick household returned house, they have been already asking themselves how the reference to their Italian household may stay. Tina’s father, Bob, particularly, started to brainstorm methods to carry this product to America. Nonetheless, there was a while to go earlier than the Marcelli Formaggi that we all know right this moment got here to be.

Bob—a extremely lauded chef—felt that as business folks, they may flip this craft into one thing bigger. They already knew the restaurant life and Bob knew what eating places seemed for and which merchandise have been significantly attractive to a chef’s eye. So, he started to slowly develop Marcelli Formaggi. His son Andy was the primary member of the family to leap aboard and helped Bob to launch Marcelli Formaggi off the bottom. Andy labored with the model till taking a job on the newly opened Eataly in flatiron. Tina was additionally working in NYC eating places on the time as a pastry chef. However, quickly, they’d each put down their chef’s knives in alternate for cheese knives. 

By 2014, it was a full-blown household affair. Tina and her mother Emily joined Bob and Andy returned to the corporate quickly thereafter. 

This was a household of food-minded folks. Each their love for meals and their ancestral roots discovered them searching for to create one thing that not solely happy the plenty however instructed their household’s story. Nunzio Marcelli’s craft was particular, and the Marcellis knew it. However now extra folks would get to study it. Extra importantly, extra folks would have the pleasure of tasting his farmstead cheeses.

It took a while to persuade their Italian counterparts, however in 2007 a marketing strategy was fashioned and the early phases of Marcelli Formaggi started to take off.

Anversa degli Abruzzi

It didn’t take lengthy for cooks in New Jersey and New York to find Marcelli Formaggi. Acclaimed chef Marc Forgione , a longtime household buddy and really first buyer in NYC, started utilizing their merchandise and from there, it snowballed.  “The primary time I tasted certainly one of Marcelli’s cheeses, I closed my eyes and will nearly see the sheep grazing on the hills on the farm and [could] odor the Abruzzo air,” says Forgione of Marcelli’s merchandise. 

Equally, on this facet of the river, New Jersey cooks have taken a liking to the Marcelli Formaggi means during the last half-decade. Chef Robbie Felice of Pasta Ramen, Viaggio and Osteria Crescendo has lengthy been a proponent of Marcelli’s catalog, using the Abruzzese cheeses in an array of dishes. At Mike’s Pasta Shoppe in East Rutherford, NJ, yow will discover Marcelli imported cheeses, pastas, olive oils and extra. Tina famous that acclaimed Montclair chef, Mike Carrino was the primary Jersey restaurant to buy the Marcelli’s cheese. 

Photographs courtesy of Marcelli Formaggi

“We’re a selection [to use] and we worth each single restaurant and buyer that chooses us,” Tina instructed me. 

So far as cheese goes, it merely doesn’t get higher than Marcelli Formaggi. At the moment, Nunzio’s daughter Viola Marcelli runs the farm and serves as the first cheesemaker. Their line of merchandise covers quite a lot of kinds and flavors, offering a cheese for everybody. The Ricotta al Fumo di Ginepro, for instance, is a two-month-aged sheep’s milk cheese that’s smoked with juniper. It’s creamy, with a slight chunk and a profound smoky taste on the again of your palate. Moreover, it’s made simply steps from the mountains that the sheep graze on. In accordance with Tina, they will’t import sufficient of this cheese—it at all times sells quick. 

The Ricotta Peperoncino begins with an similar course of, however as a substitute of being smoked with juniper, it’s rubbed with crushed Calabrian chilis after which allowed to age. The brilliant purple outer portion of the cheese is noticeably spicy, whereas the within retains a bone-white coloration and the flavour of uncooked sheep’s milk. This creates a cheese that’s inarguably well-balanced and completely in contrast to something I’ve ever tasted. 

Photographs courtesy of Marcelli Formaggi

And although there are not any cows on the Marcelli farm, that doesn’t cease Nunzio and Viola from bringing in cow’s milk cheese from the realm. The Manteca Caciocavallo Podolico particularly, is likely one of the most particular merchandise I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Made in Abruzzo by the nicknamed ‘Final Cowgirl’ Carmelina Colantuano utilizing milk Podolico Cow, Caciocavallo is hand-stretched round a ball of recent butter, creating an air-tight seal that preserves the butter inside. It’s then aged for at the least 3 months. The outer rind tastes and appears like cheese, whereas the within exhibits off a vibrant yellow-hued butter. The butter is so recent tasting that Tina may have instructed me it was churned yesterday and I’d haven’t any purpose to not consider her.

Although it began with farmstead cheeses, Marcelli Formaggi has advanced into an importer of many Abruzzese merchandise that stretch effectively past dairy. Honey made by Luca Finnochio is one product particularly that Tina’s pleasure for was unattainable to cover. “I at all times carry a pattern jar of this honey in my purse,” she instructed me. 

This honey is particularly fascinating as a result of the bees pollinate the identical flowers that Marcelli’s sheep and goats graze on. Just like the cheese earlier than it, the mountainside terroir is simple. Moreover, when mixed with any of the Marcelli cheeses, a purely Abruzzese chunk of meals is fashioned. For Tina and her household, there may be nothing extra satisfying than that. 

Moreover, bronze-cut pastas, gluten-free pasta that’s indistinguishable from its glutenous counterpart, tomato sauce and extra are dropped at the states through Marcelli Formaggi. One product particularly, although, has earned the Marcelli enterprise as a lot reward because the cheese: Olio Fresco. 

The Olio Fresco is likely one of the freshest-tasting olive oils available on the market. Olives are grown in Abruzzo and allowed to ripen on the tree till the final doable second as a way to obtain most ripeness and taste. They’re then instantly pressed, going from department to bottle in underneath 48 hours. As soon as bottled, Marcelli Formaggi flies the olive oil to the US to make sure peak taste and most freshness when it hits the cabinets. The eagerness for creating the very best olive oil begins with the olive timber themselves, however the dedication extends during to the transport course of. With different oils, downtime between bottling and transport, or choosing the fruit earlier than it’s absolutely prepared results in lackluster oils. Alternatively, Olio Fresco is vibrant inexperienced in coloration with a fruit-forward taste, buttery texture and tinge of spice on the again finish. It’s unquestionably one of the crucial profound olive oils I’ve ever had. “Yep, I carry this in my purse too,” Tina mentioned, laughing.

Photographs courtesy of Marcelli Formaggi

Any of those merchandise might be bought on their web site. Moreover, wholesale is a big a part of their enterprise, offering eating places and shops with giant portions of their items. 

If Marcelli Formaggi’s solely mission was to import glorious merchandise from Abruzzo, they’d little doubt nonetheless achieve success, however it’s the mission to empower their Italian household and inform the story of their ancestry that makes it greater than only a enterprise. After I walked into Marcelli Formaggi’s warehouse in Clifton, I used to be greeted not solely by Tina, however by her mom, Emily, and father Bob as effectively. Tina made sure I understood that with out household, the enterprise would crumble. It’s unattainable to disregard the household pleasure that goes into this operation. 

The Marcelli’s commonly go to Anversa degli Abruzzi to style merchandise and hangout with their Italian counterparts. Tina even laughed when she instructed me she was flying to Italy in lower than 15 hours to just do that. 

It’s a enterprise that begins with glorious merchandise, however it’s the pleasure and household love that catapults Marcelli Formaggi into one thing bigger. Past cheese, pasta and olive oil is a narrative of an American household retracing their roots and discovering one thing unbelievable—closing a 4,300-mile hole that extends throughout the Atlantic Ocean within the course of. That alone is sufficient to make Marcelli Formaggi certainly one of New Jersey’s best success tales.