CHEESE FROM MARCHE
We continue our dairy tour of Italy Tasting cheese con la cheese storyteller Giulia Cestari, who tells us i Marche cheeses.
Giulia has 23 anni, was born and raised in upper Piedmont, then transplanted to the Marches because of studies and remained there because enchanted by this region. Degree in Nutrition Biology, over the years she understood that she was attracted to the dairy sector.
Manages the page LatteBianco on Instagram and on Facebook.
We asked her what her preferences are for cheeses, and here are his answers.
– Which one it is the cheese in your area to which you are most attached for sentimental reasons and why?
«Living in the south of the Marche it can only be pecorino. You know what the inhabitants of Ascoli Piceno are called by those who live on the coast? “Pecorari”, it should be an offense, it certainly was once, but personally I find it one of the most fascinating jobs there is.
In my heart I will always have fried cheese, warm pieces of breaded semi-seasoned pecorino. I love to enjoy them with a cold beer on summer evenings or with a glass of wine sitting at the table of some farmhouse in the hills, but strictly in the company of my boyfriend who made me discover this gastronomic preparation ».
- Which cheese do you prefer to eat “absolute"? And which one do you prefer to use in gastronomic preparations?
"The cheese that I prefer to eat" absolute "here is definitely the pecorino aged over the year. The aromaticity that it manages to express with advancing maturation is incredible. Become a meditation cheese, a must try combined with cooked wine.
In the kitchen, however, I really like to use cow or mixed caciotta when I want to prepare a dish with melted cheese. A winning combination for me is the seasoned chicory with a good mixed caciotta ".
Marche cheeses
by Giulia Cestari
The cheeses of the Marche boast an ancient tradition, thanks to the hilly and mountainous areas rich in pastures that favor milk production.
If one thing I learned from living here is that the people of the Marche are very close to tradition, to the territory, at the origins, to history, but above all to their products, so these are, these remain and I want to introduce you to them.
We start from two products recognized as belonging to this region also at the legislative level by virtue of the assignment of PDO.
Let's talk about the Casciotta d’Urbino, already tasted by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the 16th century, recognized DO in 1982, then PDO in the 1996.
Casciotta di Urbino is a semi-cooked cheese made with sheep's milk (80%) and cow's milk (20%), straw-white in color and thin straw-yellow rind that intensifies with maturation. The taste is decidedly sweet. It is obtained through the use of lamb rennet, salting is manual, seasoning lasts approx 30-45 giorni.
Sometimes it is coated with walnut leaves and matured in small barrels between hay and chestnut leaves: in this way it is enriched with particular herbaceous scents.
When instead it is buried in the pits of Talamello at the end of August and then see the light again at the end of November, Casciotta di Urbino represents the base for Talamello pit cheese.
Seasoning in the pit also for the other PDO that we find in the Marche region.
Il Sogliano pit cheese is a historical dairy product from the Apennines of Emilia Romagna and the Marche. In the Middle Ages the Malatesta family hid products, subject to raids, in pits dug in the rock.
Even today the cheese is matured according to tradition in flask-shaped pits dug into the sandstone to a depth of about three meters. The pits are equipped with a particular microclimate, they must be at least ten years old for the bacterial colonies to form which will give the cheese the peculiarities that distinguish it. Before containing the cheeses, the pits are prepared by burning straw inside. Poi, always with straw, supported by reeds, the walls are covered, while wooden boards are placed on the bottom.
Before being sunken, the shapes are cleaned and placed in cotton bags, on which the protocol number is shown, the weight and name of the owner, so that recognition is possible. The pits are filled, closed with a wooden lid and sealed with plaster. The cheese remains underground for a period ranging from 80 a 100 giorni, during which he loses weight, but it acquires the characteristic aroma which makes it a unique food. The cheeses see the light again for the feast of Santa Caterina, the 25 novembre.
The starting cheese is made with cow's milk, sheep or mixed worked within 48 hours from the first milking.
If we wanted to simplify the Marche cheese offer as much as possible, we could say that the products are divided into caciotte, pecorini and "the others", but it would be a rather sad approximation.
The Marche caciotte are usually made from cow's milk, possibly added with goat's or sheep's milk. They are often enriched with particular ingredients such as pepper, peperoncino, nights, limone, zafferano, birra.
Among the various, the Caciotta del Montefeltro it is produced in the municipality of Urbino with raw cow's milk or the addition of sheep and / or goat's milk. This cheese is aged for a period ranging from two to six months. In the same area it is also used to season the caciotta (for at least 40 giorni) in wooden barrels, wooden chests of drawers, bigonce, terracotta tubs or amphorae, tanned with layered walnut leaves. The rind is dark ivory, the dough is compact, with rare cracks.
La Caciotta del Fermano instead it is usually left to mature less, the pasta is more glance and the taste more sweet and sour.
Let's now pass to some of the various types of pecorino from the Marches.
Il Pecorino Marchigiano, as well as caciotta, Traditional Agri-Food Product is recognized. Produced from sheep's milk, salting is dry and seasoning lasts from 20 days up to over a year.
Il Pecorino from the Sibillini Mountains (AP) it was traditionally prepared exclusively by women, especially the preparation of rennet, obtained from particular aromatic herb outlets. It ages for up to two years.
Il Pecorino di Monte Rinaldo it is produced in the Monte Rinaldo area of the same name from October until April. In this case the seasoning varies from 5 months to two years, period during which the forms are anointed with olive oil.
Particular sheep's milk cheese is then the Lemon-shaped cheese, dating back to medieval times and present in Bartolomeo Scapi's food list, cook at the papal court in the 16th century. It is produced in the Metauro Valley from April to September. The mass obtained by the coagulation of raw sheep's milk is put into lemon-shaped perforated terracotta molds. Dry salting is then carried out with a little salt mixed with grated lemon peel. Excess salt removed, the forms are brushed with water and flour to make lemon peel adhere. The seasoning lasts 4-10 giorni.
Among the cheeses of the Marche worthy of note there are those of the category "others".
Lo Slattato is a cow's milk cheese made from freshly milked milk. After coagulation, forming and salting, the forms are passed through 95 ° warm serum, wrapped in cotton and left to mature from 7 a 20 giorni. The result is a cream-colored soft rind cheese, soft paste, fine eyes, sweet taste.
Il Casècc di Montefeltro it is produced from October to March from cow's and / or sheep's milk. After dry salting, for the first ten days the forms are washed every other day, turn upside down daily and leave to dry on a wooden shelf. For the next eight days the forms are left on walnut leaves with which they will be wrapped for seasoning, up to a year, in terracotta jars. The result is a cheese with a strong flavor, pasty, pleasantly flavored.
Always in the Montefeltro area, from October to April, is produced on Raviggiolo. It is a fresh cheese, with a delicate flavor. The curd made from cow's or goat's milk is not broken, but collected in small quantities with a ladle and drained on mats or on fern leaves, fig or cabbage.
Urbino produces the Quark. Goat's milk or mixed goat-sheep's milk is processed through acid coagulation. The product obtained is usually eaten fresh, sometimes added with chives or arugula; sometimes it is left to mature.
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The shots are by Giulia Cestari, unless otherwise indicated.