Tag: foody

Pecorino of Mount Poro: Calabrian Protected Name (DOP)

3.12.2024

PECORINO OF MOUNT PORO: tradition and protection

This kind of special Pecorino is one of the most traditional cheeses in Calabria, that takes its name from Mount Poro, a plateau located in central Calabria on the Tyrrhenian seaside between Angitola, Mesima and Serra  (province of Vibo Valentia).

This plateau is an ideal place for grazing and pepper cultivation, thanks to its special microclimate and incredible nighttime humidity, which favors the presence of a wide range of spontaneous herbs.

“Monte Poro’s pecorino” is a typical, well-known product that has a long history, over the centuries. Already in 1500 was quoted by the priest Gabriele Barrio, of the order of the Franciscans, in the treaty “De Antichitate et situ Calabria”.

Nowadays, this cheese is an excellence and a DOP (protected name, according to Italian law),  due to characteristics of milk, to the pastures of this territory, and to the particular composition of the soil.

DOP mark, indeed, protects the nutritional characteristics of this pecorino and the quality due to the handicraft transformation of milk, along with the diffusion and knowledge of the product.

 

ORIGINS INTO A WONDERFUL COUNTRYSIDE

The Mount Poro cheese pie fills the shelves of all regional supermarkets, but few artisans produce it in a traditional manner: a handful of small and almost always family-run businesses. And all are located into a wonderful countryside: the Mount Poro’s plateau.

The area of ​​Mount Poro offers abundant pastures rich in aromatic herbs. Here, sheep breeding is always practiced in the wild and the excellent sheep cheese is here produced, especially in the municipalities of Ricadi, Spilinga, Drapia, Zaccanopoli, Rombiolo and Limbadi (province of Vibo Valentia).

 

PROCESS OF PRODUCTION

The technique is common to all Calabrian “pecorino”: sheep milk (with any goat’s additions) coagulates and put in the stamps without cooking, pressing the shapes energetically with hands.

Salting is always handmade: the two sides of cheese are rubbed with sea salt. Then, before laying the cheese in seasoning, its crust is enriched of olive oil and chili pepper, which give the surface a characteristic rose coloring.

The height of the shape is about 12 centimeters and the diameter of the faces is around 18 centimeters. The weight of the shapes ranges from 1.2 to 2.5 kilograms. It is preferably consumed by medium seasoning – five or six months – as table cheese, and at that time can be appreciated in all its aromatic intensity and taste fragrance.

At the cut, this cheese is slightly gleamed, granular and of a color ranging from white milk to niveous white. The internal part, –  very greasy, thanks to the treatment that the pecorino undergoes in crust, – has particular aromatic characteristics: in some cases you feel the mint and wild flowers scent.

This cheese,  -combined with a little-known Calabrian wine, the White or Rosé Scavigna, from the homonymous native grape, – is perfect.

 

“La Chjina ”, carnival sweet

16.5.2024

AN ANCIENT-FLAVORED SWEET

“La Chjina ”, the oldest carnival sweet born in Calabria…

During the Carnival in Calabria, celebrations start with an ancient-flavored sweet.

Among the sweets typical of these days of fun, one with a very aromatic taste: the ” Chjina “.

The rich and tasty interior of the Carnival cake

Its shape is like a filled tart. Its origins date back to 1700, when sugar was still a privilege of the nobles.

The inhabitants of San Fili (CS) invented this dessert. Its name means that it is full, rich in ingredients.

Making the “ Chjina ” requires dexterity and a lot of good will, but it is not very difficult.

San Fili (CS)

Roll out the pastry and fill it. Cover it with another sheet of pastry and seal the edges well. The puff pastry must be soft enough but equally consistent to be easily shaped inside the pan in which it will be placed and whose shape it will have to take.

Below we report what could be the original recipe, naturally with ingredients that once did not exist.

Night view of the village

RECIPE

Ingredients to make the pasta:

  • eggs 3 sugar
  • 250 g milk 1/4 liter (also water)
  • fat 150 g
  • flour 1 kg
  • 1 sachet yeast
  • the finely grated zest of 1 lemon.
Great to taste!

The clear ones are first beaten from sun to snow. The pasta is left soft.

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Ingredients for the filling:

  • crumbs 2 kg (crumbs obtained from 2 kilos of stale bread)
  • fig honey
  • 1 liter sugar
  • 500 g raisins
  • 1 kg nuts
  • 1 kg cocoa 250 g (sweet powder)
  • the finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange, cinnamon powder.
Panoramic square, Statue of S. Francesco di Paola

Mix everything well.

Grease the pan with fat and use the filling for a tart-shaped dessert, or in the ancient version, also inserting a disc of dough at the top.

Bake in a moderate oven until golden and garnish, if necessary, with vanilla sugar.

A magical place, suspended between mountains and valleys