Piacentinu Ennese

Appearance & taste

Piacentinu Ennese is cylindrical, with a slightly convex or almost straight side and flat or slightly concave faces. The wheel is 11 to 15 cm high, measures 18 to 20 cm in diameter and weighs 3.5 to 4.5 kg; it gets its shape in a rush basket, whose imprints remain visible on the rind. The rind is at most 5 mm thick, a more or less intense yellow because of the saffron, and may be coated with oil or oil lees. The paste is yellow throughout, smooth and without graininess; a few holes are permitted. Whole black peppercorns are set in the paste.

The cheese has a pleasant smell with a delicate saffron aroma and is barely salty. Its initially slightly spicy flavour grows stronger with ripening. It contains at least 40 % fat and at most 5 % salt in dry matter. According to the specification, a particular aroma compound, the terpene α-terpineol, comes from the forage plants of the area and passes unchanged via the milk into the cheese.

It can be recognised by a casein mark with the lettering “Piacentinu Ennese” and an identification number, which is applied to the wheel during moulding, and by a label with the product logo: a wheel with peppercorns from which a wedge-shaped piece in the shape of Sicily comes away.

Production

The milk comes from sheep of the native Sicilian breeds Comisana, Pinzirita and Valle del Belice and their crosses, reared in the area. They eat green fodder, hay and straw from the pastures of the area, as well as wheat stubble, prickly pear shoots and olive branches from winter pruning, also from the area. The flocks are on pasture for most of the year; cereals, legumes and concentrates are given only on winter days when the animals cannot go out.

Raw whole sheep’s milk with natural fermentation acidity is used. It is coagulated with rennet paste from lambs or kids from the area; saffron from the area is added during cheesemaking. The black peppercorns are first dipped for a few seconds in water hotter than 80 °C, and the cheese is salted with coarse, pure white salt. The cheese is pressed and ripens for at least 60 days in cool ripening rooms with small ventilation openings or in storerooms at 8 to 10 °C and 70 to 80 % humidity. Rearing of the animals, production and ripening take place in the area. Portions are cut only from wheels that have already been certified.

Origin & history

The province of Enna lies far from the sea and has a subcontinental climate. The forage plants grow on more or less gentle slopes between 400 and 800 m above sea level, on brown sandy and clay soils. The natural pastures carry mainly native grasses and legumes; after wheat, native vetches are often sown as an undersown crop in oats and sweet clover. Saffron has also grown in the area for centuries. According to the specification, it has a high content of crocin and picrocrocin and is classified in quality grades I and II.

According to the traditional explanation, the name derives from the Sicilian “piacenti” (something that pleases) and refers to the pleasing, not too strong flavour. The 16th-century treatise “Le venti giornate dell’agricoltura e dei piaceri della villa” mentions the salting and the colouring of the cheese with saffron, and a century later F. A. Maja describes it in “La Sicilia passeggiata”. An even older legend attributes the addition of saffron to the Norman king Ruggero, who instructed his cheesemakers to make a special cheese for his melancholy wife.