Cacciocavallo

While at Agriturismo La Sorgente, I spent two mornings with the neighbors, Claudia & Franco, to watch (and help) as they make delicious Sicilian cheeses. At Azienda Zootecnica Merendino, they only produce natural cheeses with pure ingredients. The animals are grass fed, freely roaming and grazing blissfully on these Sicilian hills and the babies have only the milk from their mothers. Cheeses are made only with fresh milk, Sicilian sea salt, lamb rennet and spring water (and sometimes a few black peppercorns and some white wine vinegar).

Here at Azienda Zootecnica Merendino they make an assortment of cheeses ranging from pecorino, cacciocavallo, tuma (which is delicious fried and with an egg, and should not to be confused with TOMA which is made in the north in Piemonte and Val d'Aosta), ricotta, capretta (small goat cheese discs), provolone and more! They have quite the aging rooms here, all with a humid feel and a pungent smell that I absolutely love!

I got to watch as they made Cacciocavallo, a Sicilian form of provolone that can be eaten fresh, aged, grated or also another version is smoked. It is often enjoyed as mozzarella is in the US, good for melting on pizzas, over pasta, or really on anything!

To make Cacciocavallo...
First of all, this is a bi-product of the process to make ricotta from cow milk. To make this cheese you do the following...

1. Cut strips of dry cacciocavallo bricks that have been drained, dried and pressed from the day(s) before.

2. Put all slices into a pot

3. Add hot whey (90C) from the cow's milk ricotta process (see ricotta blog)

4. Stir and mix well until softened and form into one large ball that is stretched to have smooth outer layer.

5. Cut in half and make (stretch and fold) inot a log

6. Cut log into smaller blocks and place blocks back in hot whey

7. Form by hand into balls, pushing into the center to form a large "butt" and then squeeze the neck to form a small "head" (you may need to dunk the head and neck back into the hot whey in order to make it softer again and more pliable).

8. Once it is formed properly, dunk in salted water and let sit there for 12 hours. Attach string and hang to dry and age.