16.7.2019

From the scents of the green pastures that surround the magnificent village of Morano Calabro a cheese from the ancient tradition is born, loved by nobles and peasants. It is the white and soft, and contains aromas and flavors of the ferns on which it is laid. Further, it is fat, fresh and characterized by an outer surface devoid of white porcelain crust, of the same shade as the pasta which is also soft, smooth and moist. The taste is delicate and pleasantly aromatic thanks to the hints given by fern leaves.

This cheese is called “felciata” of Morano, is a cheese of mostly goat’s (and a little sheep’s) milk, made in the summer, and is, indeed, called “felciata”, because takes its name from the custom of laying it on ferns.

Precisely, after heating and coagulating of the milk, the cheese, so obtained, is traditionally set in a wooden bucket filled with ferns (in Italian the ferns are called “felci”, this explains the name of the cheese, “felciata”).

Once produced, this wonderful cheese is best eaten fresh, while still warm.

THE NAME

Nowadays, the denomination “Felciata” is one of the Calabrian cheeses included in the list of Traditional Agri-food Products (TAP, but in Italian the acronym is “PAT”) of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies.

Called also “a filicèta” in the dialect of Morano Calabro, the “felciata” takes its name, as said before, from the fern leaves in which it is wrapped, taking on the characteristic aromas that distinguish them.

THE TRADITION

That of the ferns of Morano Calabro is an ancient recipe closely linked to the Calabrian pastoral tradition, probably handed down from father to son.

Soft and creamy, it was particularly appreciated by the noble families who consumed it regularly and was used as a bargaining chip by local artisans, who offered the producers the mulberry buckets used for its production, in exchange for some of the delicious cheese.

Such were (and are) its whiteness, its delicacy and its freshness, that the felciata, as reported in an ancient Calabrian text, was often called “Pane degli Angeli”.

Today, to safeguard and promote its production and avoid its disappearance, the Slow Food Foundation has chosen to protect the delicious Calabrian cheese by including it in its Arca del Gusto project.

THE TERRITORY

The narrow streets of Morano and the houses that seem to cling to each other and, in turn, anchored to the soft sides of a hill surrounded by woods and mountains, make it one of the most picturesque villages in all of Calabria. It is no coincidence that the town has been included in the circuit of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

From the first glance, when approaching the historic center you can see the surprising vernacular architecture and its poor-style buildings that embrace, almost melting into each other, climbing up to the castle that dominates them from above.

At the end of the walking, from the castle, dominating the panorama, you can finally realize why this little stone jewel is considered so charming.

PRODUCTION

The felciata is generally produced in the late spring and summer season during the months between May and September. In this period, in fact, the lush mountain pastures of the Pollino massif give the milk the most pleasant and intense aromas, flavors and smells. Today it is not easy to find it in Calabrian dairies but it is worth looking for it to taste its delicacy. Who is in Morano Calbro can buy it at the local Caseficio, which produces only organic cheeses.

TRADITIONAL RECIPE

The traditional Recipe of Felciata in Morano Calabro requests goat’s milk, coming from animals that are rigorously grazed and added with a very small percentage of sheep’s milk. Then , the milk is filtered with ferns and then heated in the appropriate copper boilers at a temperature of about 34 ° C.

Then, it is added goat or lamb rennet produced on the farm. While waiting for complete coagulation, the best sprigs of ferns are arranged by choosing those of a certain consistency from the apical part of the plant. After 30-45 minutes, the curd is picked with the coachman (a typical maple wood tool) and transferred to mulberry-wood buckets, making sure to form homogeneous layers of curd and ferns. Now glass, ceramic or terracotta containers are also used.

GASTRONOMY

To appreciate every taste and olfactory note of this cheese it is advisable to eat the “felciata” on the same day it is produced, even when it is still hot. It can be consumed alone or flavored with acacia honey. It goes nicely with dried fruit, but it is also delicious when drizzled with just a little oil. It goes well with dry and light white wines.

9.5.2019

The same History of the Western world begins, according to Homer, with a divine deliberation about the disagreement to be posed between East and West, with the proud disagreement of the Achaean (the Greeks) from the East of Troy, and with the legendary war of the same name.

To seal the decision of the gods intervenes the wine, that which divine Ebe pours to the Olympians, a wine certainly ancient, as immemorial are the traces in Calabria, in the land called “Locride”, of the production, coeval with Homer and perhaps the facts of Troy, of this magnificent vine elixir.

Thus Homer tells how the glass of Hebe, filled with wine is offered to the gods of Olympus, shortly before they decide the fate of Troy and the new world of the Achaeans (the Greeks):

“Sitting around Zeus,

the gods were at

conference / on

a gold floor, and between

their Ebe, venerable, /

poured wine them like the

nectar; those with the

gold cups /

drink a toast, while

turning their

look at Troy “.

Iliad IV, 1 ssg.

In the classical Greek world Hebe (“Ηβη, Hebe) does not have a well-defined history, it is a” discreet goddess “; however Hesiod speaks of it often and we like to imagine that the ancient archaeological sites, found in Calabria where the must was treated (the so-called “Palmenti”), were the primitive place where wine was for the first time “pro-created” by the ancient Bruzi and then by the Greek colonists. Yes, “pro-created”, born, for the first time in the Western world in collaboration with a creator, ….but not with the Goddess Hebe, but with God himself, who intended to give it to the “land of men”…

FROM THE MYTH TO HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY

The ancient millstones excavated in the rock are the clear material document, in the area of Locride, very close to the site of the “Passito di Bianco”, of the relative flourishing and long-lasting production of wine in this territory, suited for the cultivation of vines from immemorial time.

The abundant presence of rock mills (tanks of sandstone for the decantation of the must), dug into the rock, represents a very important testimony of the flourishing wine culture in Calabria. This phenomenon describes indirectly and in an important way the agricultural landscape of a specific area of the Locride, that is that of the Ionian coast of Reggio included between the municipalities of Bruzzano, Ferruzzano, S. Agata del Bianco, Caraffa del Bianco, Casignana, Africo and Samo, where a massive concentration of over 700 specimens has been found.

A RELIC OF ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WINE MAKING

The manufacts made in the rock are part of the oldest production facilities for wine. Some rocky remains of the western Mediterranean date back to the first millennium BC, but since it is a technique used in all historical periods and lacking artifacts that prove its age, their dating is often difficult.

These types of millstones are also mentioned in the Bible [Jeremiah 48.33; Job 24,11] and have been present in Syria and Israel since the Bronze Age, where there are even more than 10,000; they were also found in Greece, particularly in Crete and the small island of Gaudos, used from the Minoan to the Hellenistic age.

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The millstones of the area of Locride, instead, express the evident vocation of this territory, since Biblic time or Homeric, to viticulture and to the production of wines that from here were then shipped to the Mediterranean ports.

WINE-MAKING AT THE TIME OF HOMER

The “Palmenti” show the primordial techniques in which the crushing of the grapes was carried out with the feet, as the paintings of the tombs of Ancient Egypt describe well.

The name “palmento” derives from the Latin pavimentum: it consisted of basins dug into the sandstone, an upper one called, in actual Calabrian dialect, “buttìscu” and a lower one called “pinàci”, made communicating with each other through a hole. The sandstone is a very friable rock and where this was not present, the stalks were built in mixed masonry and made impermeable with a layer of sand and lime plaster mixed with earthenware of a thickness of about 3 cm.

**Palmenti near Ferruzzano, in front of Ionian sea**

The palmenti were equipped with a channel that allowed the outflow of the liquid squeezed into a basin for fermentation, both made of clay. Then in the upper basin there were grooves in the side walls, where a large table full of holes ( in actual Calabrian dialect:“la foràta”) was placed, which served to create a narrow passage (“consu”) into which the pomace was poured to be further crushed by a large table of holed oak wood called “chjancùni”.

Once the processing practices were completed in the millstones, the must produced was finally placed in the wine amphorae.

A good part of the many millstones of this area of Calabria, which revolved around the prosperous Magna Graecia colony of Locri Epizephirii, are hypothesized to date back to a period between the 7th and 4th century BC, due to some archaeological materials found later, in Ferruzzano and in the towns of the district of S. Domenica and Carruso: some fragments of tiles, in Greek “pithoi”, plus a fragment of a Locrese vase and a fragment of a Corinthian vase, as well as the base of a MGS amphora (Greek-Italic).

OBLIVION AND REDISCOVERY OF CALABRIAN WINE

On various surveyed and studied milestones, Byzantine crosses have also been identified, which therefore indicate that wine production continued to be present and lasting even in the sixth century AD: among them we must remember two extremely important ones since they bear the Justinian cross engraved, unique examples in Calabria.

This area is also rich in Basilian caves and architectural ruins: this suggests that the landscape has been transformed over the centuries, alternating between buildings, destruction, reconstructions and movements from the coast to the hinterland.

AN HISTORY REPEATING: OBLIVION OF ROOTS

Until not too long ago, given that the use was ignored, the Palmenti were used even as troughs for the animals; others, unused, were destroyed to make way for the cultivation of the land.

Such oblivion is a symbol of History repeating: Western world and Italy forget origins of wine making as a gift, as a “procreation” of Calabria!

One of many unique features of Calabria’s Wine Region is its great number of vines, representing the genetic root of all Italian and Western vines. Apart the ancient tecnique of Palmenti, which was “pro-created” here, you cannot count the popular indigenous varietals like Gaglioppo, as well as many that are still being re-discovered today, which gave rise, genetically and archeologically, to the highest number of indigenous grapes of all Italy and the World.

Since first production of a pure wine of vine in Armenia, 6,000 years ago, only Calabria and its Magna Graecia gave to the world a unitary tecnique of production and winemaking.

This is the main reason why the top of global wine list elected Calabria for decades as the land of more interesting wines, not only for the region’s untouched splendor and beauty, but also for the history of its wines!

Tag: delicious

In Morano Calabro: The most fresh and fragrant cheese

An ancient mission of Calabria: pro-create Wine!

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