Copertina Rivista U.S.A. – marzo 2015 Culture – the word on cheese Spring 2015 Volume 7 – Issue 2 web: culturecheesemag.com WRITTEN BY Janet Fletcher PHOTOGRAPHED BY Daniele Fontana PECORINO PARADOX Friendlier than their reputation suggests, traditional Sardinians seek innovation—and still ignore their dominant cheese encountered a bittersweet video Over the centuries, the island’s strategic online while preparing for a cheese- position lured a succession of invaders and centric journey to Sardinia. In the compelled residents to seek safety in the clip, a Sardinian shepherd near the oak-covered hills. Today, agriculture village of Gavoi recounts his trip contributes only modestly to the economy, Iinto town to renew his ID card. The clerk asks but cheese—especially pecorino Romano— for his occupation. “I’m a shepherd,” says accounts for much of that. Giuseppe Cugusi. The clerk tells him he must Sardinia produces more than 90 percent choose another word. The computer doesn’t of Italy’s pecorino Romano, but locals won’t recognize “shepherd” as an occupation. touch it. Ledà d’Ittiri was the first of many THIS PAGE: Peretha cheese hangs at Casa Fadda in In Sardinia, the Italian island that famously Sardinians to tell me they don’t eat pecorino Thiesi, above. A Sardinian shop owner poses with a wheel of cheese, below. OPPOSITE PAGE: Panoramic has more sheep than people? How could Romano. Nobody does, she insisted. “We eat view of a lake and valley near Olzai, Sardinia. shepherds have disappeared from the pecorino sardo.” bureaucratic vocabulary? (See “The Cheeses: A Glossary” for During two weeks of travel around this descriptions, p. 81.) rugged Mediterranean island, I found similar paradoxes: A culture reliant on Other People’s Cheese coastal tourism but rooted in the mountains; It’s a paradox to ponder: Sardinians make a people who scorn their island’s dominant tons of a cheese, literally, that they rarely use cheese yet happily sell it abroad; and a themselves. The United States and Canada traditional cheese community that embraces are big consumers of pecorino Romano, as innovation. Even the two producers I visited, is mainland Italy from Rome south. But the both third-generation cheesemakers, were flavor is too sharp for the Sardinian palate betting their family’s future on new ideas. and, although the cheese is less salty than it Sardinia and Sardinians confounded used to be, Sardinians have long memories. expectations repeatedly. Said to be guarded In two weeks of eating in homes and and cool to outsiders, locals welcomed me into restaurants on the island, I wasn’t offered PARADOX their home kitchens and shared their recipes, that cheese even once. garden produce, and handmade salumi. Peppi Fadda makes pecorino Romano and “Most people come here thinking we eat ricotta at Casa Fadda, his family-run enterprise fish,” says Annamaria Ledà d’Ittiri, proprietor in Thiesi, in the heart of the pecorino- of a small country hotel near Alghero, a production zone. On the hour-long drive there medieval seaside town with narrow cobbled from Alghero, silvery olive groves gave way streets and a broad, sandy beach. “But we’re to freshly mown fields dotted with hay bales. shepherds. All our traditional recipes are for My husband navigated the S-curves while I lamb, pork, and cheese—what comes from scoured the silent landscape for signs of sheep. the country, not from the coast.” It wasn’t easy, but finally, before we began SPRING 15 culturecheesemag.com 77 THIS PAGE: Sheep wander at Azienda Erkìles, a small Sardinian creamery, left. Casa Fadda continues to make feta and other Greek cheeses in Sardinia, below. OPPOSITE PAGE: Azienda Erkìles owner Giovanni Agostino Curreli admires a wheel of cheese. the steep descent into Thiesi, I spotted tufts on small conference room for a chat, but Fadda The town is preparing for its annual literary the distant hills and realized they were moving. retrieves a few glasses and a bottle of home- festival, and giant black-and-white photographs Curiously, the creamery is making kefalotyri, made grappa from a hutch nearby. A jovial of eminent writers hang eerily from building a Greek-style sheep’s milk cheese, on the day man with a salesman’s personality and an walls, the writers’ eyes seeming to follow me. we visit. Many Greek cheesemakers fled to entrepreneurial streak, Fadda wants me to Remembering the video, I stop into a specialty Sardinia during the Second World War, taste his entire output, including two ages of food shop and ask the clerk if he has any bringing their recipes with them, but only the buttery, lemony Maganza, his trade- cheese from Giuseppe Cugusi, but that name Casa Fadda continues to make feta and other marked pecorino sardo–style cheese. means nothing to him. Greek cheeses. Preceding the Greeks, For Casa Fadda, prosperity lies in making Our destination is ten miles beyond, in immigrants from Lazio, the region around branded cheeses rather than PDO cheeses, remote Olzai, one of those ancient, red tile- Rome, had dominated the island’s cheese- such as pecorino sardo and smoked fiore roofed villages that seem to tumble down the making in the last century, lured by plentiful sardo, which others produce. Fadda’s creative mountain. Its alley-like streets are empty in sheep’s milk. They built plants for pecorino masterwork thus far is Ovinforth, a sheep’s the late afternoon, although an elderly man Romano and shipped the sharp, salty wheels milk blue. Rindless, nutty, and buttery, emerges from his home to watch us search back to the mainland, which explains why Ovinforth is mellower and less salty than the futilely for our B&B. Only 900 citizens remain Sardinians have always viewed pecorino Roquefort that inspired it. in Olzai, in part because the town has the Romano as a cheese they make for others. admirable tradition of sending its young In a big kettle in a steamy side room, Fadda’s A Modern Hit – in London people to college, and they rarely return. 22-year-old son, Giuseppe, heats whey drained To meet another innovator, my husband and Giovanni Agostino Curreli never left. This from kefalotyri until more curds surface. Peppi I drive deeper into the island’s secluded portly, soft-spoken shepherd assumed the scoops the hot, fluffy ricotta into a paper cup interior. We stop briefly for a glimpse of Gavoi, profession of his father and grandfather, for me to taste. “It’s headed for Palermo,” he a prosperous mountain village overlooking managing 500 sheep with help from his son, boasts. “It will be in the cannoli sold on Sunday.” Lake Gusana, its well-kept stone homes and making cheeses in a tiny tiled creamery. It isn’t yet noon when we sit down in a decorated with geranium-filled window boxes. But his small business, Azienda Erkìles, 78 culturecheesemag.com SPRING 15 SPRING 15 culturecheesemag.com 79 Where to Stay L’Agnata di De Andrè Il Cagliarese B&B Via Oschiri, Località L’Agnata Via Vittorio Porcile 19 Tempio Pausania Cagliari +39 079 671384 +39 339 654 4083 agnata.com ilcagliarese.it A picturesque country property A quiet bed and breakfast in a with 10 tasteful bedrooms, historic building located in the landscaped grounds, and a heart of the city’s lively old quarter. swimming pool. Managers Angelica Three simply furnished but and Fabrizio have a background in comfortable bedrooms with hospitality, and it shows. Eat here modern bathrooms. Hosts Mauro Trattoria Pizzeria Doña Isabel Sa Domu Sarda and Lorenzo are supremely at least one night; the cooking is Via Mazzini 59 Via Sassari 51 hospitable and helpful, and traditional and careful, and Alghero Cagliari Fabrizio knows his wine list. Mauro’s breakfasts are sublime: breads and pastries fetched from +39 079 978897 +39 070 653400 the bakery each morning (ask for trattoriadonaisabel.it sadomusarda.it pane di ricotta, tender ricotta buns) Polished, traditional cooking, Well-prepared traditional dishes, gently updated. Try pane guttiau, served graciously in a relaxed, and a cornucopia of seasonal fruit. warm Sardinian cracker bread cozy setting. Try culurgiones (potato with olive oil, sea salt, and ravioli) with toasted walnuts and Where to EAT rosemary; marinated fresh pine nuts; fresh fava beans with mackerel; and pasta with guanciale; and cavatelli with Osteria Barcellonetta octopus and sun-dried tomato. goat ragù. Via Vincenzo Gioberti 31 Alghero Ristorante Da Renzo To view, sample, and purchase a broad range of Sardinia’s cheeses: +39 079 973 2079 S. S. 131 Km. 99 Casa del Formaggio ristoranteosteriabarcellonetta.it Siamaggiore Rustic, charming seafood restaurant +39 0783 33658 Via Giuseppe Mazzini, 43 Wine Resort Ledà d’Ittiri with outdoor seating. Try octopus darenzo.it Alghero Località Arenosu 23 carpaccio; handmade trofie pasta On the rural outskirts of Oristano, +39 079 973 3067 Fertilia with potatoes, squid, and bottarga; Da Renzo is considered among the Proprietor: Claudio Monti island’s finest seafood restaurants. +39 329 252 8891 and grilled yellowfin tuna. Impeccable pesce crudo (raw fish) ledadittiri.it and fregola (couscous-like pasta) A 15-minute drive from Alghero, with shellfish. Finish with this rural estate boasts six spacious, Sardinian almond pastries and high-ceilinged bedrooms furnished a glass of sweet Vernaccia—it’s with antiques; breakfast on the worth a splurge. terrace includes buttery local ricotta with honey. Open from Easter to mid-October. 80 culturecheesemag.com SPRING 15 THIS PAGE: Scenes from the quaint town of Alghero. OPPOSITE PAGE: The city of Cagliari, where Il Cagliarese B&B is located, top. A cozy room at L’Agnata di De Andrè, left, and the property’s landscaped grounds, bottom. And the change improved the cheeses, Piredda says.