The Sikhs Who Saved Parmesan
25th December 2015
On the flat plains of the Po Valley is the small town of Novellara, in the province of Reggio Emilia. It’s not far from the city of Parma – and from Parma and Reggio Emilia comes the name of one of the world’s most famous cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano… in English, Parmesan. Under EU rules, it has to be made exclusively from milk produced and transformed into cheese in this area of northern Italy.
The large number of Sikhs who have settled here were not attracted by the territory’s famous product but rather by the territory itself, explains Novellara’s mayor, Elena Carletti: “They say, ‘We live here and we feel like we’re still in Punjab because it’s flat, there are no mountains, it’s hot, it’s humid, and the kind of agriculture is more or less the same.'” According to the mayor, Sikhs feel comfortable in their Italian home from home.