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Traditional Breeds What are the foundations Cheeses safeguarded of an authentic by Slow Food cheesemaking tradition? Belice Valley Vastedda Stretched-curd sheep’s milk cheeses are ex- In Sicily, selective breeding by farmers over the PASTURES are crucial to cheesemaking tremely rare, as they are very difficult to pro- centuries has resulted in hardy breeds, well suited traditions: Each cheese is the product of a duce. Vastedda, one of the few examples of to grazing local wild pastures and able to survive region – its climate, vegetation, morphology and such a cheese, used to be produced in the the most difficult and dry periods. They are known so on. The best milk comes from places where wild Fiore sicano grasses grow, the flora is rich and diversified, and Belice Valley during the summer months as a the classic fresh ricotta. Ricotta salata is made by to produce high quality milk and flavorsome meat, Girgentana Goat animals are free to choose what they graze on, way of salvaging defective pecorino cheeses. Maiorchino Also known as tinnazzu ri vacca, there was a time salting the cheese’s surface for 10-20 days, while but are less productive than modern breeds. For therefore allowing them to better meet their needs In fact, its name probably comes from “vasta”, when the production of this mild, soft, cow’s milk ricotta affumicata is produced by smoking the this reason, today they are at high risk of extinction. This breed is named after the town of Girgenti Made on the Peloritani Mountains in Messina Prov- and increase their wellbeing. local dialect for faulty or spoiled. Today it is cheese was almost abandoned. It was originally forms. Aged ricottas, which are matured for up to Consuming the high quality cheeses made from (modern-day Agrigento) and is unmistakable for ince, Maiorchino is one of Italy’s largest sheep’s milk The odor-producing substances in wild grasses are produced with milk from the native Valle del made, perhaps by chance, from the incomplete two months, are ideal for grating. Ricotta infornata their milk and their meat is a great way to support its very long spiraled, or corkscrewed, horns. Its cheeses, with each form weighing between 10 -18 fat-soluble and are transmitted to cheese via the Belice sheep. Vastedda is a highly fragrant and fermentation of Canestrato cheese. The curds are is produced by placing one- or two-day-old ricotta the breeders that are the custodians of these ani- coat and horns resemble wild Asian goats, and kilos. It is produced from raw sheep’s milk with the fats contained in milk. Feeding livestock with wild smooth cheese with an intense flavor, which is first broken up into small grain-sized pieces with into ceramic vessels and baking them in an oven for mals and will help ensure their survival! according to some its origins can be traced back Nebrodi Provola addition of a small amount of goat’s or cow’s milk. grasses – through grazing on pastures and alpine eaten fresh within a few days of production. a wooden stick called a rotula, placed into molds three hours, producing a thin, reddish-brown film to the goats of Tibet in the Himalayas. Interesting The complicated production technique includes a meadows and using local hay – is an ancient prac- This traditional Sicilian Caciocavallo cow’s milk and left to rest. They are then placed into the whey on the surface. Ricotta infornata can be cooked a goat cheeses are made from its milk in the region long period of poking of the curds with a thin stick Cinisara Cattle tice that must be preserved. cheese is made by cheesemakers in the Nebrodi known as a “minacino”, which is inserted repeat- again. After being salted, the forms are aged from second time for 12 hours, in which case it is called around Agrigento. Caciocavallo Palermitano Mountains, whose pastures are situated largely edly into the forms that are then pressed by hand 60 days to one year. The mold that grows on the “double-oven ricotta”. There are a handful of pro- The Cinisara is a medium-sized breed that is char- Caciocavallo produced in the Palermo region is tra- Cheese traditions rely on the processing within the Nebrodi National Park. The size varies to drain out the whey. Maiorchino is cylindrical with surface of the cheese gives the rind a greyish-green ducers who continue to produce an extremely rare acterized by its deep black coat, long curved horns ditionally made from the milk of the Cinisara cattle of raw milk. In addition to destroying any depending on the production area, ranging from a flat or slightly concave sides, a yellow-amber rind color. The paste is white, soft and compact. The fi- form of ricotta that is made by coagulating whey in the males and its ability to graze the most inac- breed. It is considered to be the best use of the harmful bacteria, pasteurization destroys good kilo in the northwest Nebrodi, to a kilo and a half that turns brown as it matures and a compact paste nal forms are cylindrical with flat faces and weigh with a fig branch, thistles or wild artichokes, or cessible pastures of the mountains around Palermo. modest amount of extraordinary milk produced by bacteria that are needed to transform milk into or more in the central Nebrodi, and up to five kilos that is white tending to straw colored. It is excellent around two kilos. Fiore Sicano is produced in the even using seawater for the salting. Only in Sicily While it only produces about half of the quantity of Cinisara cows, which has a good fat content and cheese, neutralizing the milk and essentially ren- in the eastern Nebrodi. It is oval in shape, with the consumed after four months, but can be aged for central area of the Sicanian Mountains, between can so many variations of the humble ricotta be milk produced by a Friesian, the milk is very high is rich in aromas due to the vegetation they graze dering it lifeless. Without the original lactic flora, classic head typical of Caciocavallo cheeses (used up to 24 months. the provinces of Agrigento and Palermo. found, along with the use of this dairy product in a in quality and is used to produce Caciocavallo Pal- on in the mountains of Palermo. The rectangular you get an anonymous product that displays no to tie and hang the cheese for aging). The cheeses large number of recipes. Ricotta is an indispensible ermitano. forms of stretched curd are matured in cool, natural ties to its region of origin: a homogenized cheese have a smooth, shiny skin and are straw-amber in Ricotta ingredient for many Sicilian pastry traditions, cru- color. Nebrodi Provola can be consumed fresh but environments and placed on wooden planks rather that can be replicated anywhere. Ricotta is a dairy product that is produced by re- cial to cassata, cannoli, cassatelle and many more the flavor improves with aging, varying from sweet than being hung like their heavier and larger cous- This is why RAW MILK cheeses are tastier, more heating the whey that remains after cow’s, goat’s sweets. to piquant. in, Ragusano. After a full year of aging, the Paler- complex and more interesting. or sheep’s milk is used to produce pecorino, Cacio- Enna Piacentinu mitano exhibits notes of citrus, sage and dried hay, Canestrato and has a mellow and lasting flavor with a slightly cavallo or other cheeses. The process involves heat- Over time, man has selected the breeds Comisana, Pinzirita and Valle del Belice are a ing the whey after adding a little salt, until white Canestrato is a semi-hard, cooked cheese, made in few of the native sheep breeds that are raised piquant finish. most-suited to milk production and cheese- flakes of curdled protein, residual fats, lactose and varying sizes, primarily from cow’s milk, sometimes in the hills of Enna, where the pastures are making, choosing those that are most productive or coagulated mineral salts form. The curds are col- with the addition of goat’s or sheep’s milk. Produc- rich with herbal aromas. Since ancient times, Sicilian Pecorino have the best quality milk, but above all, favoring lected with a strainer and placed into small pierced tion of this cheese in Sicily is mentioned in docu- their milk has been mixed with saffron grown According to experts, this is probably Europe’s old- breeds that are most-suited to the territory. Today baskets called fiscelle on a sloped workbench to ments dating back to the 13th century and it seems in the region, or sometimes peppercorns, to est cheese, and it was certainly the first cheese to many of these breeds are disappearing. As industry allow them to drain. There are many variations on it was made by cattle herdsmen during the spring make Piacentinu – named after the dialect Ragusano be produced on the island. It is made by heating demands high production quantities and standard- to make use of excess sheep’s milk at that time word meaning “pleasurable.” The production raw sheep’s milk and adding lamb rennet. The curd ization, LOCAL NATIVE BREEDS have been re- Ragusano (or scaluni in local dialect) is a stretched- of year. When fresh and unsalted, it is also called methods, which involve adding warm water to is then broken up into lentil-sized pieces with a rot- placed by “milk machines”, to the detriment of the curd cow’s milk cheese produced on the Hyblaean Pla- tumazzu or “first salt”.

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