In southern Italy and Sicily, you can taste one of the oldest country's cheeses: Caciocavallo. In Sicily, they make Caciocavallo Silano and in the regions of southern Italy, Caciocavallo Basilicata. The name of this cheese means in Italian "cheese" for cacio and "horse" for cavallo. This funny name derives from the maturation process of this cheese, since Caciocavallos are bound in pairs and hung "on horseback" above a horizontal bracket. Before, when cheeses were transported to the market on a donkey, this packaging was particularly suitable!
The production of Caciocavallo is widespread in southern Italy, but the traditional mode of production still goes on, with a major part of cheeses made by hand. We must recognize that Italy knows how to keep its cheese traditions in their original form, since it is the birthplace of Slow Food, which acts for protecting traditions of breeding and agriculture, as well as for the preservation of indigenous races. Caciocavallo is not an exception, as a small group of producers of this cheese defends the method of raising local breed cows and artisanal production with the help of Slow Food Foundation.
Filippo Laurini is one of them. He owns Azienda Agricola Paganico, a family domain in the village of Tito, near Potenza. Filippo is a notary in Milan and has dedicated his domain to breeding, to perpetuate ancestral activity.
Located on the edge of the Lucanian Apennines National Park, the Azienda also has a great history. The domain previously belonged to "Marquis de Tito" and entered the Filippo family in 1827. In the heart of the domain is the Casone, a former hunting house that welcomed pastoralists at night to protect livestock from wild animals. During the 1850s, the Casone was the refuge of brigands, loyal fighters of the Bourbons, who fought against the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (before the creation of Italy). After that, the Casone became the place of artisanal cheese making, from a growing herd of cows of a local breed: the Podolica.
Today at Filippo's farm, 80 Podolica cows and 200 goats enjoy some 500 hectares of mountain, at an altitude of between 800 and 1200 meters. Alessandro and Mariano Cerbasi are the two partners of Filippo. They are responsible for raising cows and goats, respectively. It was Alessandro who greeted us at the farm early in the morning, when Mariano was milking the goats.
Mariano during goats milking
Alessandro milks 40 cows from May to July to make the famous Caciocavallo. The short duration of cheese making is intense and physically harsh, since the Caciocavallo from Azienda Paganico is made by hand. Alessandro’s hands, hardened and whitened by the daily cheese-making process attest to this. Caciocavallo is made according to the same process as Mozzarella in Myrtle we described before: the curd of the milk is pressed, acidified for several hours, then the cheese is spun in boiling water, until the cheese becomes elastic. It is then given this characteristic shape, before hanging it for maturation, varying from 6 to 24 months.
Back to our cows ... We told you that at Azienda Agricola Paganico, we make Caciocavallo with the milk of a local cow, Podolica. But what is this cow?
The Podolica is a cow with a coat varying from dark to light grey. On his head stand two large lyre-shaped horns. It has solid limbs and feeds itself with few resources. It produces a small amount of a very fatty milk. Podolica cannot stand being locked up and it is therefore in large mountainous spaces that she lives. About its health, it's tough! At the Azienda, the cows are in the mountains all year round and the vet rarely comes by. Some cows in the herd are over twenty years old!
Alessandro made us travel aboard his all-terrain vehicle among the 500 hectares of the domain, to meet their magnificent Podolicas. We took a break at altitude, near the Casone, to drink a glass of the spring water where the cows come to drink. Alessandro will tell us: "This is where Filippo comes to recharge his batteries when he comes to the Azienda".
The domain has not always welcomed Podolicas, nor made Caciocavallo. Filippo owned a herd of Prim’Holsteins a few years ago, the milk of which was sold to the dairy. But the business was unprofitable. These very productive and nutritionally demanding cows were not adapted to the land and the natural resources available. Filippo therefore had to buy cereals from outside (which he could not produce locally). The economic value of the cows' milk was too low for Filippo to financially make it out. Seven years ago, Filippo began the transition to Podolicas breeding and cheese production, thanks to European Union aids to develop this type of activity. It was at this point that Alessandro, who until then worked for the dairy that collected the milk, took part in the development of the farm. It took a couple of years to make this change of farming profitable. Today, the Azienda is recognized for its quality cheese, sold for around 25 euros per kilo to restaurants and professionals who sale "noble" products. Especially, top chefs as far as Milan, 800 km from the farm, cook the Caciocavallo from Azienda Agricola Paganico.
As the expression tells, "what is rare is expensive". The scarcity of the product linked to the low milk production of the Podolicas and their extensive breeding favors a high selling price of the cheese. In some places in Italy, Caciocavallo is sold for more than 30 euros per kilo. A deserved selling price for quality workmanship and exceptional cheese.
We will leave Alessandro and his podolicas with a nice gift: a caciocavallo just for us! 😋
