Provola dei Nebrodi

Appearance & taste

The fresh provola is pear-shaped, with or without a “stalk” (“testina”) at the top; the other varieties are oval with a short neck that widens towards the top. A cord is tied around the neck, on which the cheeses hang in pairs to dry and ripen. They are 15 to 35 cm long and 12 to 25 cm in diameter; the fresh variety weighs 1 to 2 kg, the others 2 to 10 kg. The rind is thin, soft and smooth, creamy white tending to straw-coloured, and turns golden yellow with age; on matured varieties it may be brushed with olive oil.

When fresh, the paste is soft and ivory-coloured; as it ripens it becomes semi-hard to hard and amber-yellow; it may have a few small eyes. In the “sfoglia”, bundles of long, parallel cheese fibres separate during the long ripening and form a flaky structure. The “con limone verde” variety stays softer because the embedded lemon slowly releases moisture, and it smells of lemon.

Fresh, the cheese tastes sweet and mild; matured, strong and savoury. As it ripens, notes of green grass, hay, butyric acid and mushrooms come through. The cheese is sold whole or in portions, the matured variety also grated.

Production

The cows graze for at least 240 days a year on meadows with native wild plants and sown grasses such as sweet clover and common vetch. Pasture, hay and other roughage make up at least 60 % of the dry matter of the feed, and at least 60 % of the total feed comes from the area. Supplementary feed, mainly maize and soya from outside, may make up to 40 %; according to the specification, the Nebrodi are suited above all to grassland and hardly to growing cereals. Silage and fenugreek are prohibited.

Raw whole cow’s milk is processed with lamb or kid rennet paste. Commercial starter cultures are not allowed; acidification comes from the natural microflora of the raw milk and the biofilms on the wooden tools: the wooden vat “tina”, the paddle “ruotula” for breaking the curd, the wooden containers “piddiaturi”, the flat cutting stick “manuvedda” and the large board “tavuliere”. Every day the cheesemaker judges coagulation, acidification, cutting and stretching of the curd according to the milk and the weather. In the “con limone verde” variety a whole green lemon is embedded during stretching; it ripens for at least 90 days.

The cheeses ripen in cool, well-ventilated rooms, some for more than a year. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area, as do grating and cutting pieces without rind.

Origin & history

The area comprises municipalities in the Nebrodi in the provinces of Messina, Catania and Enna, including Bronte, Randazzo, Troina, Mistretta, Tortorici and Patti. The winters in the mountains are long and fairly harsh, the summers mild and rarely above 25 to 28 °C. Rainfall is 500 to 1,400 mm, and the mean annual temperature is 12 to 14 °C. More than 120 species from over 25 plant families grow on the pastures, mainly grasses, legumes and composites. Studies have found more than 60 volatile aroma compounds in the cheese, including terpenes, which according to the specification come from the forage plants.

According to the specification, Provola dei Nebrodi is one of the oldest cheeses of Sicily. In 1870 and 1872 the priest Gaetano Salmone described the traditional method of production in a handbook for the district of Mistretta, and it is reflected in today’s method. According to the specification, the large, long-keeping cheeses of up to 10 kg are unique in Sicily; they were also necessary because snowy winters often blocked the way to the markets for a long time. The cheesemakers’ knowledge gave rise to the two varieties “sfoglia” and “con limone verde”.