Ricotta Romana

Appearance & taste

Ricotta Romana is a fresh product with a white paste of grainy, very fine texture. It tastes milky and sweetish and, according to the specification, is more strongly coloured than ricotta made from cow’s milk. A piece weighs up to 2 kg, with a 10 % tolerance, and contains at least 40 % fat in dry matter.

The specification attributes the sweetish taste to the “sweet whey” with at least 3.55 % lactose, obtained from the milk of sheep on the pastures of Lazio, and to the fact that no acidity regulators are added to the whey. Ricotta Romana is eaten on its own and is an ingredient in numerous traditional dishes of Lazio.

Production

The whey comes from the whole milk of the sheep breeds Sarda, Comisana, Sopravvissana, Massese, Lacaune, Merinizzata, Assaf and Valle del Belice and their crosses. The sheep graze on the meadows of the area; hay and concentrated feed without artificial substances and genetically modified organisms may be added, with feed from outside at most 30 % of the dry matter per year. In summer, during the dry period, mountain grazing and transhumance are also allowed in neighbouring regions.

The slightly yellowish whey is left over from making sheep’s cheese from Lazio milk. When it is heated to 50 to 60 °C, whole sheep’s milk may be added, at most 15 % of the volume of whey. According to the specification, separating the curd, which depends on the skill of the cheesemaker, is essential for quality. As soon as the milk serum has almost completely drained off, the ricotta is packed in truncated-cone baskets of wicker, plastic or metal, but also in parchment paper, plastic containers or under a protective atmosphere. Because it does not ripen and spoils easily, it must be packed in Lazio.

Origin & history

Lazio has mountain ranges of limestone and volcanic rock, hills and alluvial plains. The average annual temperature is between 13 and 16 °C; annual rainfall is about 650 mm on the coast and up to 1,800 to 2,000 mm on the Terminillo and in the Simbruini mountains. Over 440,000 sheep are kept in the region, producing about 600,000 hectolitres of milk a year.

Market data from the chambers of commerce of Rome (1922–1965), Viterbo, Frosinone and Latina document ricotta on the region’s markets. The farm records of the Gasparri estate list the production of Ricotta Romana from 1907 to 1924, a total of 850 kg in 1907. In 1953 Trinchieri described its production in “Vita di pastori nella Campagna Romana”. In Barbarano Romano in the province of Viterbo, the rural festival “Attozata”, centred on sheep’s ricotta, has been held for about 30 years.