The cold started again and the production of ricotta started again….as well.
There is none like this one here.
We are on the Sienese hills, the “Crete”. The village is called Torre a Castello and is a fraction of Asciano. We are at the top. Below is a wavy sea of gentle hills. Few houses along the street. The dairy must be …guessed. When you arrive you see nothing else: a few houses on the left side of the road, which ends with a curve to the right; there aren’t even people. At least you don’t see anybody around, on this stretch of road that has become a small village.
You must know it.
Once parked the car, we cross the street, ring the bell and wait.
Like the “Snail” in Comencini’s “Pinocchio” TV series about forty years ago, the lady let us wait, before looking out the window. We knew it. We often come here. She looks out, asks us if we want cheese, and tells us she’s coming out of the house in five minutes. We also know it won’t be five minutes. House and shop, all there.
I really like to wait there, in front of the green sea, especially when the wheat has sprouted and the young ears are moving. I almost get seasick. Meanwhile, I imagine the lady walking down the stairs slowly, just like the Blue Fairy Snail.
Here she is, she has a key, she opens the wooden door under her window. It opens us to the Cheese Paradise.
Here on the Sienese hills, as well as in the Val d ’Orcia, on these clays, the best wild herbs in the world grow. Absinthe also grows there. There is nothing else on these clods, says Pellegrino. You can’t cultivate anything else. Certainly not the vineyard and not even the olive trees. Pasture land, which made the farmers who were born there escape; this land attracted Sardinian shepherds with a strong and lasting vocation. But the sheep live there happy and well fed and their milk gives incredible cheeses. The shepherds have been able to make fruitful these difficult lands, without any damage to the environment. Today, with the tractors available, wheat is grown there, indeed, grains are grown there, those with the original seeds, never modified.
For cheeses it takes a whole book so I won’t be talking about it today. Today I will write just a little about the ricotta.
To tell the truth even a blog post seems to me an understatement for this delight. It must be savored to understand it.
Do you know ricotta? Here, forget it. This has nothing to do with the best ricotta you have tasted so far. Watery, gelatinous, white, sweet.
Dip the spoon into the mold still inside its basket and taste it. Then you don’t stop anymore. One spoon pulls the other, like cherries. It is light, fresh, delicate. Yet it’s not even made with milk. Yes, because ricotta is a waste product: it is obtained from whey, that is, from what remains after the casein has coagulated and the “future” cheese (curd) is extracted from the liquid and drained. Ricotta is a dairy product that cannot be defined as “cheese”.
When it is freshly made, still warm … so pleasant and sensual, it goes down smooth and velvety.
If you have a good chestnut flour, with castagnaccio is “her death” (Ricotta in Italian is a feminine name, that is why iI used “her”). And if you want to make Maremma Ravioli, they will be the most delicious in the world. But also a pudding, to be served with caramelized apples. Ricotta, especially this one, is good with everything.
Having good products on the table and in the fridge is possible. In Italy it is also quite easy. Just get out of any city and, instead of spending Sunday in shopping malls, spend it outdoors.
There is so much out there … even where there seems to be nothing.