With Cookinshow in Palermo, you can taste Caciocavallo Ragusano, discovering its history and characteristics, enjoyed with typical Sicilian toasted bread and 0 km jams, in arancina with Bronte pistachio pesto and with Busiate with Trapanese pesto, tomato and toasted almonds.   

Caciocavallo Ragusano is a cheese made with raw cow’s milk, using traditional equipment. It is produced throughout the territory of the province of Ragusa and in some centers of the province of Syracuse. Historically known as Ragusan caciocavallo, it is one of the oldest dairy products on the island. Its name seems to derive from the custom of drying the forms of cheese hung on a board (“a cavaddu”). Already in the fourteenth century it was exported out of Sicily and in 1800 the abbot Paolo Balsamo said: “the goodness of the Modica cattle and the products of cheese and ricotta are superior in quality to the other best Sicilian products”.  

 

In the south-east of Sicily, caciocavallo cheese is considered the symbol of tradition and authenticity. Ragusano DOP cheese is the pride of the masserie, characteristic architectural complexes in the south-eastern Sicilian countryside built on white limestone. It is, at the same time, the home of the farmer and a small dairy where the milk from the cows, which graze in the surrounding fields, is artisanally transformed into a real delicacy, according to a recipe that has been handed down for generations. Ragusano’ is made in a special atmosphere, amidst wooden tools with ancient names and slow gestures. Freshly milked milk is brought to the cheese-making plant. Creamy and rich in cream, the fresh milk here exudes the flavours of the area’s aromatic herbs. In 1995 it obtained the denomination of origin and, the following year, it acquired the Community recognition of Protected Designation of Origin, losing its historical name of “Caciocavallo”. Ragusano is produced in the limestone plateaus of the Iblei Mountains in the southeastern part of Sicily. Ragusano PDO cheese has a pleasant aroma, with a sweet vanilla flavour, slightly piquant in the first months of maturation (in the case of table cheese), tending to piquant and savoury with a hint of almonds as it matures.  

 

CURIOSITIES AND SECRETS 

In Ragusa, when a person is ambiguous and untrue, he is called “4 faces like the caciocavallo”.  

Aged Ragusano DOP cheese goes very well with white and red wines and served with orange marmalade.  

With Cookinshow in Palermo you can taste the caciocavallo ragusano cheese discovering its history and characteristics, tasted with the typical Sicilian toasted bread and 0 km jams, in the arancina combined with Bronte pistachio pesto and in the Busiate with Trapanese pesto with tomato and toasted almonds.