Just say cheese....

Salvatore is a local farmer, shepherd, and cheese maker.  Many days we see him drive his flock of one hundred sheep and goats up the mountain in the morning and back down in the afternoon.  He is in his mid 70's and is not able to walk that great distance, so he leads the herd by driving his Fiat Panda, directing his sheep dogs with toots of the horn.

Salvatore makes pecorino and ricotta cheese every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  He welcomes spectators, so our group of ten rallied as the roosters crowed, and coasted down the mountain to Salvatore's farm at 5am on Friday morning.  Well, actually nine of us went, Chuck will have to read this blog to see what he missed.  Salvatore had already milked the goats and heated the milk in preparation for making the pecorino.  He speaks little English, so he explained the process slowly in Italian while Chris and I did our best to interpret.

He scoops the cheese curds out of his big kettle with his hands and arms, and presses them into the forms on his draining table, adding peppercorns as he goes.  He carefully presses down on the fresh cheese to squeeze the liquid out.  After draining for a while, he skillfully flips the cheese in the forms.

Salvatore flips the wheel of pecorino so both sides are imprinted

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Once the two wheels of pecorino are finished, he prepares to make the ricotta.  One interesting aspect is that he whittles the bark of several fig branches to infuse the remaining milk with that particular aroma.  The big kettle is then swung back to the fire for the second cooking, hence the name ricotta, or cooked twice.  At exactly the right temperature, which he knows by years of experience, the ricotta forms at the top of the milk.
                                                                 

Whittling the fig branch to infuse flavor into the ricotta....

                                                                                

When it is the right consistency, he carefully ladles the ricotta, ladle by ladle, with the deft touch of an artist, into the small containers. 

                                                               

He scoops a little of the still warm ricotta into plastic bowls for each of us to taste with his wife's homemade bread.  Needless to say, it is amazing...

Seeing Salvatore's work ethic and commitment to the traditional ways is a powerful experience.  He doesn't consider himself an artisanal cheese maker, or an organic farmer.  He just does it the way he has done for fifty years, the way he learned. We bought half a wheel of pecorino and a basket of ricotta... for 13 euros.  As we were saying our goodbyes, Chris noticed the bright yellow flowers on the mimosa tree in the back.  Salvatore's wife quickly went to the tree and cut some branches for Chris, in honor of Festa della Donna, or Women's Day, which is March 8.  It was a lovely gesture, and continues to remind us how kind, caring, and loving the Sicilian people are.
                                                               

How sweet....

Traditional Festa della Donna mimosa flowers on our table...

Now when we say "Just Say Cheese", we'll have a new respect for a very old tradition....

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