Red Pecorino
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
PAT type: Cheeses
Production area: Sicilian territory
Description:
Fat cheese, with long maturation, hard paste. The rind is hard, ivory or straw yellow in color, which takes on a red color after 2 months, following capping with oil and tomato. The paste is hard, compact, quite elastic in the product of short maturation, white or straw yellow in color. The name derives from the particular and unique characteristic of the red pecorino that it is rubbed during maturation, as well as with the olive oil, also with the tomato sauce, which gives it the typical red color. The treatment is done by hand, starting to spread the wheels when the cheese is about two months old and its paste is still tender and fresh. The mixture of oil and tomato sauce, which is spread, creates a protective layer on the skin, which in any case allows the cheese to 'breathe' for the duration of the aging. This procedure implies that the minimum seasoning is the average one (second salt) and excludes the tume and primisals.
Note:
In Italy other cheeses are called with the same name both in Tuscany and in Sardinia. Unlike the Sicilian red pecorino which owes its name to the seasoning made with tomato sauce, these other cheeses are simply pecorino, to which saffron or chilli is added during production.
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Area of production: Sicilian territory
Brief description of the product: Fat cheese, with a long maturation, hard paste Cylindrical shape with flat faces with a diameter of 18-35 cm, with a slightly convex side, 10-18 cm high. The weight is 4-12 kg.
Processing Technology: The milk from one or two milks is heated to a temperature of 34-35 ° and added with lamb or kid rennet paste. The curd, rennet, undergoes a break with the "patella", a wooden tool, the size of a lentil. After letting it rest under the whey, the pasta is extracted and placed in the baskets. Chilli can be added. The forms are pressed by hand and then immersed in the sheet at 85 ° for 4 months. The salting is dry, the rind is wetted with brine.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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