52 Reasons to Love Sicily #40. Life-changing Culinary Experiences Throughout Sicily, you can delight in an explosion of flavors and textures, whether from eating crunchy and gooey arancine (rice balls) in Palermo, spiced sausage made from chestnut-eating black boar of the Nebrodi Mountains, savory pistachio pesto from Bronte, crusty bread from a family-run bakery in…
Tag: ricotta
Cheese Has A Terroir Too
This is not Sicily, but upstate New York. Like fine wine, you want your cheese to come from a pristine environment. Here’s where the sheep live that make the milk that makes the ricotta that we’ll be sending to you! This weekend we’re preparing the cannoli for the artisanal Cannoli Case we’re sending from Dancing…
Order Your Cannoli Case Today
You know you want it! A box of all you need to assemble six artisanal cannoli with sheep’s milk ricotta cream (made by yours truly) sent directly from Dancing Ewe Farm in Granville, NY plus imported passito wine from Tuscany and admission to an exclusive online presentation… Come on… Order Your Cannoli Case Today at…
Cheese, Glorious Cheese: Sheep’s Milk Cheese In Sicily
Cheese, glorious cheese! Sheep’s milk cheese that is. In 2018, I wrote a nine part series about cheese making. “Let’s Talk Cheese” can be viewed starting at https://experiencesicily.com/2018/07/08/lets-talk-cheese-part-1/ Once you read Part 1, scroll to the bottom of the ExperienceSicily.com page to “Next Post” to continue. I know you never took cheese for granted before…
Live from Sicily! Remote Town, Day 3
Live from Sicily! Day 3 of Life In A Remote Sicilian Town. Cheese making demonstration with ricotta, fresh out of the cauldron with Salvatore Polizzi at the dairy! Mmmmm! We learned about life in a remote farming village, Buscemi, with a demonstration of their local ritual breadmaking for San Biagio. Then, a winery tour and…
360 Degrees Of Etna
Live from Sicily! The villages of Etna hosted our curiosities today. We started the morning eating sheep’s milk ricotta warm out of the cauldron along with honey drizzled doughnuts. When we visited the town of Zafferano Etnea, we learned some local mythology and about what it’s like to live on Europe’s most active volcano. This…
Sweet Ricotta Cream, High School Students, and I
It may not be the season exactly for cuccìa, but in lieu of researching and writing a post, I spent the night making the wheatberry ricotta pudding pictured along with cannoli cream for dozens of cannoli, not pictured… All for a lecture/presentation tomorrow about the feasts and foods of Sicily at a high school in…
Let’s Talk Cheese: Part 9
In the Valle del Belice in Trapani Province, Sicily, they produce a DOP (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta or Protected Designation of Origin) certified “pasta filata” (stretched/pulled) cheese called Vastedda della Valle del Belice. The name, vastedda, comes from the local Sicilian language–vasta means “gone bad.” In other words, the cheese is made from pecorino cheese that…
Ricotta is Right
This beautiful plate of “pasta alla Norma” was my dinner back at the beginning of June in Bagheria, Sicily my grandmother’s hometown. It is the classic Sicilian pasta dish, made with maccheroni (in this case rigatoni) with a light tomato sauce, sautéed (or fried) eggplant, grated salted ricotta, and if available, fresh basil. Please take…
Let’s Talk Cheese: Part 8
So, my tips when visiting the caseificio/cheese maker/dairy farm is to arrive early (8:30? You’ll have to ask their schedule.) to watch the process. But most importantly, to taste the tuma and ricotta right off of the draining table, when it’s still warm. Go hungry, and bring with you a few rolls of freshly baked,…