CheeseArt in Ragusa, for those who love cheese!

Do you know what "CheeseArt" is? CheeseArt is a great event located in Ragusa and organised by the Association Corfilac. It will celebrate the opening of two important places devoted to cheeses. The first is the Cacioteca Regionale Siciliana and the second is a lab called Accademia della terra, where is possible to taste products and have guided tours.


Now, I believe the world  is divided in 2 species: people who love cheeses and people who hate them. I still get a bit disappointed when I come across a person that says: "I don't like cheeses." I always wonder: "How is that possible? I love them!!!"


I know I know, it seems very appropriate quoting the famous latin sentence: "de gustibus non disputandum est!" It means that there is no point in discussing about people's taste because everyone has its own.


Let's not discuss then, let's just go to Ragusa for this amazing event and if you are too far to go, have some nice cheese and enjoy it! ;-)

Sicilian cheeses: la vastedda del Belice

Do you know what is the so-called "vastedda del Belice"? It's a local exquisite cheese coming from the area of Belice, in the province of Agrigento.

The vastedda, which is the only "pasta filata cheese" (or stretched cheese) is made from sheep and has an ivory color. In the past it was produced only in Summer (from May to October) but now you find it all year round. The experts used to produce it in summer to try to recuperate the pecorino cheeses that had come out with some defects. Infact the name itself in Sicilian dialect vasta or vastedda means wrong, gone bad.


Basically these pecorini were stretched at high temperature, creating a new kind of oval-shaped cheese that was perfect to be eaten fresh in few days and it was extremely tasty too! Farmers started to eat it with bread and tomatoes at their lunch break in the fields. Nowadays this local cheese is a POD and is produced in the provinces of Agrigento, Palermo and Trapani. 

The story of the "Caciocavallo all'Argentiera", the Sicilian fried cheese

Do you know how to cook the Sicilian fried cheese called caciocavallo all'Argentiera? We need only three adjectives to describe this dish: easy, tasty, interesting.

Easy because it only takes 10 minutes to prepare it. Tasty because the main ingredient is our local traditional cheese called: "caciocavallo", which has a very strong taste. Interesting because the story of this dish is old and extremely particular.

In Palermo there is a street called via dell'Argenteria, near the famous food market of the Vucciria. The name of the street takes origin from the argentieri who were working there (people who used to work silver). The story tells that a wife of one of these silver workers one day created this dish for two reasons: 1. to exploit the fire that was always on and 2. to make believe the neibourghs that they were having rabbit for lunch. Infact the secret is that the combinations of the ingredients: oil, garlic, cheese and vinegar smelled exactly like a cooked rabbit.

So they could pretend to have rabbit for lunch every day, but they actually had instead only fried caciocavallo cheese, which was a lot cheaper.

And that's the funny story of this dish and its recipe.

Ingredients & preparation:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

2-3 slices of Caciocavallo cheese

oregano

a pinch of black pepper

3 tablespoons of vinegar

In a frying pan heat the olive oil on a medium heat, add the garlic and after a minute put the pieces of cheese. Let them cooked covered for a couple of minute, let them fry on both sides until the slices become golden.

Now add the vinegar, the pepper and finally a nice abundant sprinkle of oregano. Prepare the serving dish and decorate with a bit of fresh watery fennel just like in the picture. It will contrast with the tasty salted cheese flavour. And don't forget to serve it with a nice glass of red wine. Enjoy!